A Day In The Life Of Mother Earth : The Good News. . . : Gloomy predictions are offset by very real progress on the environmental front. Some examples:

* In Israel and Jordan, rooftop solar collectors already provide 25-65 percent of domestic hot water. * Among promising new lighting technologies are compact fluorescent bulbs use only 18 watts to produce the same amount of light as 75-watt incandescent bulbs. * Total energy usage per industry in the richest nations, the source of most pollution, has fallen by about 40% since 1970 while industries’ contribution to gross national product has remained stable. * California has 15,000 wind turbines producing 2.5 billion kilowatt hours annually, enough to meet the needs of all the homes in San Francisco. Denmark, the world’s second largest wind energy producer, received about 2 percent of its power from wind turbines in 1990. * Electric arc furnaces produce high-quality steel from scrap metal using far less energy than an antiquated open-hearth furnace does. Roughly one third of all steel in the U.S. is already produced from scrap in such furnaces. Steel produced from scrap also reduces air pollution 85% and eliminates mining wastes altogether. * California’s pioneering energy policies there have fostered utility investments in improved energy efficiency, causing electricity use per person to decline 0.3 percent between 1978 and 1988, compared with an 11-percent increase in the rest of the United States. * Super-insulated homes in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan have been built so tightly that it does not pay to install a furnace; a small electric baseboard heater is more than adequate. such homes use one-tenth the energy consumed by the average U.S. home. * Widespread adoption of birth control has helped reduce birth rates considerably in Brazil, where the average number of children per woman of reproductive age fell from 5.8 in 1970 to 3.3 in 1990. * An estimated 100,000 or more grass-roots organizations are devoted to environmental causes, with 100 million members in the Third World alone. * In Germany, new micro-cogeneration systems are now being introduced that allow restaurants, apartment buildings and other facilities to produce heat and power for themselves. * Scientists at AT&T;’s Bell Laboratories are redesigning their manufacturing operations to eliminate waste generation. Among the measures is the phaseout of CFCs by 1994. * Prototype solar-electric commuter cars are capable of an equivalent of nearly 200 miles per gallon. Though not yet ready for market, such cars produce much less pollution than have the potential to be far safer than today’s models. * In Tokyo, the world’s biggest city, only 15 percent of commuters drive cars to the office. * The Canadian province of Ottawa has a program in place in which 84 percent of beer is sold in standardized refillable glass bottles. With stiff deposits, 98% of these refillable bottles are returned for reuse. * Recycled plastic is being used to make a number of products, such as plastic lumber and sleeping bag insulation. * Using nutrients cultivated from human waste, Shanghai now produces a surplus of vegetables that are exported to other cities in China. * Germany is a pioneer in resuing all the materials they (refrigerators) contain, including chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs). * Recycling aluminum cans, which cuts related air pollution by 95%, has greatly increased in the past several decades. In 1972, only 15.4% of the cans produced were recycled. By 1991, that proportion had grown to 62.4%. * Vending machines have been developed that accept cans, glass and other items for recycling. They weigh or count the object being deposited and dispense money or tokens in payment. * German automobile manufacturers are working to make disassembly and reuse of vehicled components much easier, and have set up pilot recycling programs. * Tunisia has controlled urban land prices and reduced unproductive land ownership by establishing a “rolling land bank” program to buy and sell land. * In Calcutta, a sewage-fed aquaculture system now provides 20,000 kilograms of fresh fish each day for sale in the city. * The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland no longer catches fire. * Germany, a long-time coal producer, has emerged as the leader, committing itself to a 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2005. Close behind are Australia, Austria, Denmark, and New Zealand, each of which has pledged to cut emissions 20 percent during the same period. * The air quality in Los Angeles, though still far from good, has greatly improved over the last 20 years. * Air quality has improved in Tokyo and in many northern European cities as well. * Carbon taxes aimed at cutting greenhouse gases went into effect in Finland and the Netherlands in early 1990; Sweden began collecting carbon taxes in January, 1991. * In Britain, a higher tax on leaded gasoline increased the market share of unleaded petrol from 4 percent in April 1989 to 30 percent in March 1990. * The Montreal Protocol, passed in 1987, called for the halving of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) production by the end of the 1990’s, the first significant multi-nation agreement on global environmental issues. CFCs are the culprit in ozone depletion. * More and more, telecommunications are allowing employees to work at home or in satellite offices and avoid congested highways. * IBM’s disc drive facility in San Jose, Calif., has cut CFC emissions by more efficient and cheaper to operate. * Comprehensive land-use controls in Japan and Western Europe have the world’s most comprehensive urban land use controls; their cities are generally compact and efficient. Source: Worldwatch Institute