Content: 1 - China, India and the new world order; 2 -Rethinking the global meat industry; 3 - Safeguarding freshwater ecosystems; 4 - Cultivating renewable alternatives to oil; 5 - Shrinking science; 6 -Curtailing Mercury's global reach; 7 - Turning disasters into peacemaking opportunities; 8 - Reconciling trade and sustainable development; 9 - Building a green civil society in China; 10 - Transforming corporations.

Review: This is the 23rd edition of one of the standard global assessments. In keeping with previous editions, this volume looks at a specific area of work which, this year, is the challenge caused to the environment by the rising development of China and India. The overall argument of the book is that these two nations have significant populations and growth expectations which together, will create an unprecedented pressure upon the planet and its resources. The important issue, for sustainability, is to manage this with the least increase in impact. Note that the idea is least increase not minimal impact for we have here an assessment based for more on reality than the sustainability studies of 15 or 20 years ago. Likewise, the positions of the respective governments are given a good hearing for they are also aware of the problem and wish to mitigate it not least for the good of their own countrypeople.

We start with a timeline - a preface to the main matter in hand. It provides us with a useful, graphic overview of the key environmental events in the preceding 12 months. It provides a backdrop against which to assess the main work. Chapter one looks at global development but from the perspectives of China and India and their supplies and demands. From this point, the book ranges across some of the key issues which we face in looking at such global development. Changing incomes mean a shift towards meat but that demands rangelands and so the efficiency of land diminishes as demand for food rises. Some solutions are proposed - the common swap for some vegetarian meals and the less common call for smaller cattle farms as being more efficient. Chapter three starts with a more global look at fresh water supply and shows human impacts and examples of use. China and India are noted but this is more of a collection of global cases showing how we need to adapt (and support the two large nations). Chapter four takes a similar stance with oil but focusses more on the developing world's use of biofuel. Nanotechnology, the science of the very small scale, doesn't seem like a developing nation idea but it is with China holding a major part in its development. It also allows the authors to note that it is most unlikely that any new technology will solve every problem (which questions a nation's reliance on it. Chapter six looks at one particular pollutant - mercury - and shows how its global reach is affecting even the least impacted areas such as the Arctic Circle. In this wide-ranging study we see that such pollutants will create more problems as industries develop i.e. India and China. Chapter 7 takes a different approach when it looks at the way in which disaster relief can be used to aid peacekeeping. It's a recognition that poverty and war continue in an atmosphere of inequality and that help given in times of need might be repaid by better relationships. Chapter 8 examines trade. This has received a poor press in recent years through its links with development but here the emphasis is on the WTO's Doha agreement and the ways it might help poorer nations. Chapter 9, unlike other work, takes just one restricted topic - Chinese environmentalism - and shows how and where it is developing. By way of contrast, the final chapter looks at the ways in which corporations could be better citizens.

Overall, this book continues the traditions of excellence started by it predecessors. The topics are eclectic but they pinpoint some key issues. More importantly, they show a high degree of creativity in solutions getting away from the more black-and-white approach seen in works of 10-20 years ago. Here is a balanced account of some of this year's key issues and the ways they affect two large nations. As always, its main feature is the quality of its writing and research and the way it puts forward an argument. On these grounds alone it should be seen as a must-buy for any library wishing to showcase good writing but, with the quality research as well, it's a vital tool for those studying the global scene.