The Worldwatch Institute's research team tackles the great challenge of our rapidly globalizing world: how to use our political systems to manage the difficult and complex relationships between the global economy and the Earth's ecosystems. This book provides concerned citizens and national leaders with an analysis of threatening environmental trends - from the growing pollution of groundwater to the increasing toll of "unnatural" disasters to the effects of the developing world's staggering 2 trillion dollar debt - and emerging solutions to turn those trends around.