We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative person to play a significant role in the ongoing development and management of EarthTrends. The successful applicant will help to fulfill WRI's mission of guaranteeing public access to information and analysis related to sustainable development and the environment.

We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative person to play a significant role in the ongoing development and management of EarthTrends (http://earthtrends.wri.org), a comprehensive online database that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world. The successful applicant will help to fulfill WRI's mission of guaranteeing public access to information and analysis related to sustainable development and the environment.

The World Resources Institute is currently accepting applications for a Cynthia Helms Fellow. We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative person to help develop a special collection of EarthTrends information covering China. Applicants must be Chinese nationals.

In our continuing efforts to provide the most reliable and current information, the EarthTrends team has recently updated some of our most popular indicators, including the latest population estimates and fossil fuel production data, along with many others. Here are a few interesting factoids from this latest data. Test your global knowledge or discover even more interesting trends by accessing the full datasets below.

• The most densely populated country in the world:
  Singapore, with 6,699 people per square kilometer (the global average is 51!)
• Country with lowest life expectancy:
  In Swaziland, the average person lives only 31.2 years
• Country producing the most coal:
  China produces over one billion toe (tonnes of oil equivalent) of coal each year, nearly twice that of the second largest producer, the United States.

In the last quarter century, China's breakneck economic growth has lifted over 50 million people out of poverty and tripled energy demand. Experts predict that China will surpass the United States to become the world's largest consumer of energy and fossil fuels soon after 2010. And because of its heavy reliance on coal, China already emits more carbon dioxide than any country on earth.

The rate and path of this energy growth is of enormous consequence for both China and the world. At stake are issues of global importance, including climate change and competition over dwindling oil resources. Perhaps more important for China, however, are domestic concerns such as severe urban air pollution, energy security, and sustained economic growth.

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The members of the EarthTrends team at the World Resources Institute, together with our data providers, compile a world-class collection of environmental and sustainable development information to the public at no charge. In order to maintain these services to our users, we need to demonstrate that our site is making tangible contributions to research, education, and policymaking. Tell us how our information is assisting you in your work or studies, and what improvements can be made to the EarthTrends web site. Access the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=g_2bPE1GsTSW6nZypkmG0s0Q_3d_3d.

The World Resources Institute is seeking a highly motivated and innovative person to play a significant role in the continuing technical development and management of two of our premier on-line information tools: the Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) and EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal. Depending on the applicant's interests and abilities, up to 40% of the position could include research support as well: analysis of climate and sustainable development issues, project planning, and data compilation.

By Therese Tepe and Derik Broekhoff

Consumers worldwide can now purchase carbon offsets from more than 30 companies in order to compensate for the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by their day-to-day activities. Retailers who offer this service invest the consumer's money into various projects that otherwise would not exist, thus reducing atmospheric GHG levels. In other words, consumers pay to decrease emissions somewhere else in order to compensate for the emissions they can not reduce from their own lives.

By Tim Herzog

Last week, China released a draft of its First National Climate Change Assessment. The draft mostly focuses on the impacts that China will likely face due to global warming, but it also reportedly includes a goal of reducing China's carbon intensity by 40% by 2020, and 80% by 2050. The draft is not official (the official release has now been indefinitely delayed), but in any case it signals the first time that China has considered an emissions target in any form.

The social and economic costs of natural disasters impede sustainable development and poverty alleviation efforts, especially in developing countries. For several years, developed countries and international organizations have concentrated their efforts on alleviation and reconstruction after natural disasters have occurred. Recently, however, natural disasters have increased in both frequency and intensity of damage. New strategies are needed at the international level that prepare for these events instead of focusing on post-disaster mitigation.