This annual volume, written by the staff of the award-winning Worldwatch Institute, gives prominence to key trends that too often escape the attention of the news media, world leaders, and economic experts. By distilling forty-five vital signs of our times from thousands of government, industrial, and scientific documents, this book allows readers to track key indicators that show social, economic, and environmental progress, or the lack of it. Vital Signs 2001 presents up-to-the-minute information on environmental and sustainable development topics such as global warming, population growth, transgenic crops, HIV/AIDS, international trade, and Internet use. Each trend is presented in both text and graphics, providing a thorough, well-documented, and very accessible overview. Vital Signs is an excellent companion volume to Worldwatch’s highly acclaimed State of the World series. Charts, tables, graphs.