The author argues that true security has less to do with how many tanks or soldiers a country can marshal and more with how well it protects its arable lands and watersheds and how well it manages to meet peoples social and economic needs. Military means are often irrelevant or even counterproductive in this new security equation; they are a depreciating asset. At a time when the United Nations has been devoting a sharply higher share of its resources to peacekeeping, while reducing spending on basic environmental and economic development, this new book provides a wake-up call for policy...

This annual volume from Brown and the Worldwatch Institute concisely presents the good news, the bad news, and some surprises about the health of our planet and civilization. Worldwatch's award-winning researchers have culled information from around the globe to come up with key indicators that best track change in the environmental, economic, and social health of the world. Graphs & tables.