The Best Environment of 1994

1. Winged Victory

Being the national emblem didn't keep the bald eagle from facing extinction. Devastated by hunters and pollution, the birds were down to a few hundred breeding pairs in the lower 48 states when they became an endangered species in 1978. Now they are back (4,000-plus pairs) and only "threatened" -- out of grave danger but still off-limits to hunters.

2. Progress on Population

The U.N. population summit in Cairo was predictably fractious and confrontational -- but it ended in surprising harmony. The 180 participating countries approved a plan calling for governments to earmark $17 billion annually by the year 2000 to support family planning, health care and programs that empower women, on the amply documented proposition that women who control their own lives tend to have fewer children. Even so, if there is no better follow-up to Cairo than there was to the Earth Summit in Rio, don't expect the population bomb to be defused anytime soon.

3. Super Rice

The planet's farmers are hard pressed to feed 5.7 billion people -- and nearly 100 million newborns each year. So it was more than welcome news when the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute announced a new strain of rice that yields as much as 25% more grain per acre than existing plants do. Once disease and insect resistance have been bred into the rice, a process expected to take about five years, the miracle grain will be set to join the fight against hunger.

4. Taming Wildlife Traders

The U.S. is quick to complain about countries that permit traffic in endangered animals and plants, but it rarely acts -- despite a 1978 law that authorizes trade sanctions against the offenders. Last spring, finally, the Administration used the law for the first time. It slapped a ban on some products from Taiwan, citing the black market in tiger body parts and rhinoceros horns, which are used as aphrodisiacs and in traditional medicines.

5. Gimme That Trash

Think you have been "recycling" bottles and newspapers? They have often been dumped in landfills because there wasn't enough demand for recyclables. Now there is, and the reusable trash is surging in value. The price of old newspaper increased more than 400% in the U.S. in the past year. And companies are scrambling to construct trash-reprocessing plants -- a sure sign that recycling is here to stay.

...And The Worst

1. Russian Ecotastrophe.

A 2 million-bbl. oil spill would be bad anywhere, but the pipeline leak in the Russian Arctic in October was especially unfortunate. The harsh weather makes it hard for wildlife to survive in any case, and sluggish cleanup efforts virtually guaranteed an ecological disaster. Worse yet, there is a lot more dilapidated pipeline in the area.

2. All Fished Out

The cliched solace given disappointed lovers is no longer true: there are not plenty of other fish in the sea. Aggressive fleets have forced 13 of the world's 17 major fisheries to the verge of collapse. Canada banned cod fishing on the Atlantic's Grand Banks this year, and the U.S. followed with an order putting large areas of New England's Georges Bank out of bounds.

3. A Little Is Too Much

It makes sense that large amounts of pesticides and industrial wastes could harm humans and other animals. The notion that tiny doses are dangerous is less obvious -- but probably true, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this year in a report on dioxin. Even trace amounts of this and many similar chemicals may sometimes lead to reproductive disorders, including decreased sperm counts and miscarriage.

4. Clear-Cutting Eden

One of the world's few remaining pristine forests stands in Suriname and Guyana in South America -- but the two nations are now opening huge tracts to logging. If history is any guide, these woods could soon be gone, leaving barren hills and silt-choked rivers. Environmentalists are pushing preferable ways to profit from the trees, such as prospecting for natural medicines.

5. No End to Whaling

DNA testing is not used only to decide the fate of accused murderers. A genetics-based investigation by the conservation group Earthtrust proved that whale meat on sale in some Japanese markets had come from illegally caught animals. Among the victims: minke whales, fin whales and humpbacks.