The EarthTrends website continues to fill a vital and rapidly growing role in providing free online access to information about the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world. The site offers the public a comprehensive collection of vital statistics, maps, graphics, and stories for over 200 countries drawing on data and information from more than 40 of the world’s leading statistical agencies. Topics include poverty, education, economics, agriculture, and governance, as well as the more “traditional” environmental themes of water resources, biodiversity, and forestry.
Usership has more than doubled since last year, with some 900,000 site visitors in 2004. The average EarthTrends visitor remains on the site for 12 minutes. EarthTrends’ information has been cited in major news media such as CNN, the New York Times, and U.S. News and World Report; incorporated into school curricula in Asia, Australia, Latin America, and North America; translated by international organizations; and utilized in briefings and strategy sessions at all levels of government.
To underscore the importance of the HIV/AIDS crisis and other public health issues, EarthTrends added new health-related variables to the searchable database, created new data tables, and circulated a monthly update highlighting the 15th International AIDS Conference and the challenges that public health issues pose to sustainable development. Users can now compare different countries’ access to retroviral therapy, their contraceptive use, number of malaria cases, incidence of tuberculosis, and public health expenditures among other things.
The EarthTrends Poverty Resource, a collection of subnational data, maps, and analysis launched in December 2004, shows development organizations and national governments where the poor are located. The Poverty Resource demonstrates how poverty, nutrition and human well-being are connected to environment and governance issues, acting as a portal to previously inaccessible and nondigitized information that is not catalogued elsewhere. With knowledge of the location and condition of infrastructure and natural resource assets that are critical to poverty reduction, policy-makers can deploy highly targeted funds and interventions to reach the neediest people by the most effective and affordable means.
