ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION A NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 10, 1993                   TAG: 9301100054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION A NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Protecting the Earth is becoming big business, promising to boost employment worldwide, the 10th annual "State of the World" report said Saturday.
Rather than threatening jobs, efforts to save the environment are giving birth to a "new industrial revolution" and offering global profit-making opportunities, says the Worldwatch Institute report.
Ecological progress worldwide should be boosted by the new Clinton administration said Worldwatch President Lester R. Brown.
He said Vice President-elect Al Gore's grasp of environmental issues "exceeds that of any person I know of in government in the world."
Cleaning up air, water and soil already is a $200 billion annual business, the report said.
Environment-related industries may generate trillions of dollars in the next century, according to the report which is being translated into 27 languages.
"Environmentally related industries will be a major source of new jobs in the Nineties," it said.
These include industries that manufacture vehicles that run on hydrogen, natural gas, electricity or use far less gasoline than current models.
"It now appears that the automotive industry is about to undergo some of the most rapid change since Henry Ford introduced the Model T," the report said.
It predicted the demise of the internal combustion engine and the rise of a more-diverse transportation system worldwide.
Other emerging industries friendly to the environment are fish farming, information services, recycled steel manufacturing and solar energy production, it said.
Government regulations are helping promote such enterprises, but taxes on products that damage the Earth - toxic chemicals and air pollutants - are a surer way to promote greener industries, Worldwatch said.
Worldwatch's Brown said the alternative is an impoverished, overpopulated Earth plagued by polluted air, dying forests, soil loss, poisoned waterways, ozone depletion and global warming.
The environmental organization said the threat has worsened since the first "State of the World" report was issued by the non-profit, independent research group in 1984.
Tropical forest loss has increased 60 percent, species are disappearing, and population increases have accelerated from 80 million a year in 1984 to an expected 92 million this year.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB