Winter 2006

What is the Most Pressing Environmental Question?

by Bjorn Lomborg

? By BJØRN LOMBORG most people seem to believe that the state of the world is getting worse—that poverty, malnutrition, and inequality are increasing, while the air and water become more polluted, forests continue to shrink, and global warming threatens humankind. Yet the data tell a very different story. Humanity’s lot has improved dramatically—not just in the developed world but in the developing world, where the poverty and malnutrition rates, both 50 percent in 1950, have dropped to 25...

The Future

inevitable diversification of our nation’s, and the world’s, language portfolio.

¦ Barbara Wallraff is a columnist on language for The Atlantic Monthly and the author of three books, including Word Fugitives, which will be published in March.

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