Some of the most dramatic changes are occurring in the poorest communities. Micro loans of as little as $50 have helped people as poor as the wastepickers of the Payatas landfill near Manila to secure loans for small businesses, land, and housing. And the Community Reinvestment Act has helped push lending in poor U.S. neighborhoods from an average of roughly $3 billion per year in the 1980s to $43 billion in 1997.

Throughout 2001, rapid change was also seen at the national and state levels. Brazil and Germany announced major new commitments to the development of renewable energy, while the State of California defied U.S. government policy by announcing the world’s first mandatory limits on global warming emissions from cars.

These success stories offer hope that we can address the serious global threats still undermining societies and ecosystems around the world.

Among those discussed in State of the World 2003:
• Malaria claims 7,000 lives every day, and affects human development more profoundly than any other disease.
• Bird extinctions are running at some 50 times the natural rate due to habitat loss and other consequences of human activity.
• 5,500 children die each day from diseases linked to polluted food, air, and water.
• The global rate of ice melt has more than doubled since 1988 and could raise sea levels 27 centimeters (nearly 11 inches) by 2100.