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EarthTrends

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems | EarthTrends

A resource for teachers, students, researchers, and journalists — from those who are simply curious to those who require hard data — EarthTrends is a new and unique online environmental information database developed by the World Resources Institute.

EarthTrends gives you access, free of charge, to current information about ecosystems, people, economies, places, and social issues at national, regional, and global levels. But EarthTrends isn't just a mountain of data. EarthTrends also offers a variety of features to spark or satisfy your curiosity: stories, maps, graphics, and country profiles — as well as searchable databases and data tables.

Looking for statistics?

Did you know that the average US citizen consumes about twice as much grain, twice as much fish, three times as much meat, nine times as much paper, and eleven times as much gasoline as someone living in a developing nation? Compare people's resource use worldwide via the data and graphics in EarthTrends.

Annual per Capita Consumption in Selected Nations
Country	Meat (kg) 1998	Paper (kg) 1998	Fossil Fuels (kg of oil equivalent) 1997	Passenger Cars (per 1,000 people) 1996	Total Value of Private Consumption 1997
United States	122	293	6,902	489	$21,680
Japan	42	239	3,277	373	$15,554
Poland	73	54	2,585	209	$5,087
China	47	30	700	3.2	$1,410
Zambia	12	1.6	77	17	$625

Taking a trip?

Find out everything about the ecology and economy of the country you're visiting — whether it's the number of bird species in Costa Rica or the percentage of Indonesia's population that lives in poverty.

Confused about energy?

Has all the talk about the "energy crisis" in the United States got you wondering where our power comes from and whether renewable energy supplies are increasing? Short, well-illustrated analyses presented as feature stories in EarthTrends make complicated topics and trends understandable.

US Energy Production - Solar (1,000 metric tons oil equivalent)

US Energy Production - Solar (1,000 metric tons oil equivalent)

Want a graphic presentation to help you visualize the data?

You've heard how most of the US grasslands have been converted to farms and urban areas, and what's left is being fragmented with roads — but you can't visualize what that looks like?

Grassland Blocks in the Great Plains (click on image to enlarge)

EarthTrends offers more than 60 full-color maps to help you picture everything from grassland condition in the United States, to soil degradation in Asia, to per capita water availability worldwide. Best of all, EarthTrends explains why you should care.

It's easy to become overwhelmed by news about pressures on the world's resources, especially on a global scale, and stymied by what the solutions might be. EarthTrends puts global environmental trends in terms we can all grasp. Check out EarthTrends at http://earthtrends.wri.org/.

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