The Second Generation.

• Position: Brief Article

Late last year, I was selected by the Worldwatch Board of Directors to be the Institute's second president. I am honored by the Board's decision and by the responsibility that it represents: to take this unique institute into a second generation of global environmental leadership.

Worldwatch was founded in 1974 by Lester Brown and a small group of colleagues who sought to create something unprecedented: an interdisciplinary research institute that could communicate with a broad audience about the health of our species and planet, using the language of the New York Times or the Atlantic, rather than that of an academic journal.

Over time, we have grown to be an organization with a stable of widely read publications, and a global network of 160 publishing contracts in more than 30 languages. Our flagship annual State of the World report is looked to by decision makers and the media for the latest insights on the health of the global environment and economy. The Institute's $4.5 million annual budget is supported by 16 premier foundations and some 4,500 individual donors, as well as revenues from publications sales and other earned income.

Lester Brown, who has recently stepped up to be the Chairman of our Board, has created an extraordinary institution. The challenge for our second generation is to take this well-known and respected organization, and move it to a new level of effectiveness in providing the ideas and information needed to foster an environmentally sustainable society.

We are at a decisive juncture in human history, one that makes the Worldwatch role more essential than ever. The collision between expanding human demands and the limits of the Earth's natural systems has created unprecedented challenges for our...