Just as people schedule regular check-ups with physicians, our planet needs regular check-ups to catch issues as early as possible, before they become more serious and harder to heal. That is the much-needed service provided on a global scale by the Worldwatch Institute in this new book, Vital Signs 2012. By taking stock of global consumption, Vital Signs 2012 offers the facts that need to guide our stewardship of the Earth's resources-and some of these facts are shocking. The report covers topics from obesity to ecosystem services, from grain production to nuclear power. Taken as a whole, it paints a picture of skyrocketing population, disappearing forests, and increasing consumption peppered with bright spots like growing investment in high-speed trains and other efficient transportation systems. Vital Signs 2012 is based on Worldwatch's online project of the same name, which provides up-to-date figures on important global concerns, as well as the Institute's own additional research. The book compiles the most important of these into an accessible, informative resource for policymakers and anyone who wants a realistic look at the state of our planet.

Is your small group healthy? Is it thriving, surviving, or declining? Is your group missional or in maintenance mode? Do you want answers to these questions? How about a viable plan of action for the future of you group? This book contains a revealing small group health evaluation and principles that will help you determine and increase your group's level of health in seven vital areas: - Christ-centered Community - Overflowing Leadership - Shared Leadership - Proactive Leadership - Authentic Community - Ministry to Others - Discipling Environment In SMALL GROUP VITAL SIGNS, you'll gain a new appreciation for the way Mike Mack explains why each of the areas above are critical to your group's health. His helpful stories, biblical principles, and practical ideas for health and vitality will help you and your group grow in each area. If you've wondered why some small groups thrive and their leaders seem so energized and happy, you'll discover it in this revealing book-and learn how to become this kind of leader!

This anthology illustrates the range and diversity of responses from the psychological world to the multiple ecological crises with which our society is faced. "Vital signs" are the basic physiological measures of functioning which health practitioners use to assess how ill a patient is. This book focuses not on our physical predicament, with so many of the earth's systems severely stressed and beginning to fail, but on our psychological predicament. As news of this very serious situation slowly penetrates our defences, we struggle as individuals and as a society to find an adequate response.

What we make and buy is a major indicator of society’s collective priorities. Among twenty-four key trends, Vital Signs Volume 22 explores significant global patterns in production and consumption. The result is a fascinating snapshot of how we invest our resources and the implications for the world’s well-being. The book examines developments in six main areas: energy, environment and climate, transportation, food and agriculture, global economy and resources, and population and society. Readers will learn how aquaculture is making gains on wild fish catches, where high speed rail is accelerating, why plastic production is on the rise, who is escaping chronic hunger, and who is still suffering. Researchers at the Worldwatch Institute not only provide the most up-to-date statistics, but put them in context. The analysis in Vital Signs teaches us both about our current priorities and how they could be shaped to create a better future.

Moving through the exotic settings of California, Hawaii, and Africa, New York Times bestselling author Barbara Wood weaves a rich and compelling story of three women's lives and the challenges they face in their careers and in their relationships. In the late 1960s, three bright, ambitious women struggling to make a place in a man's world meet in medical school. Each has a past she wants to forget, and each has a dream she needs to fulfill. Mickey Long — Disfigured from birth, Mickey turns to plastic surgery to heal herself and others afflicted with her special pain. Sondra Mallone — Abandoned by her natural parents, Sondra becomes a missionary doctor to forgotten souls crying out for love. Ruth Shapiro — After discovering the miracle of motherhood, Ruth opens a pioneering fertility clinic that offers new hope to those who once had none. In the years that lie ahead — years of triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow, love and loneliness — each woman will find, in their unique bond of friendship, the courage and strength to succeed.

The bestselling “master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times) tells a harrowing tale of the lengths one doctor will go to in order to conceive—and the conspiracy that may be at the root of her struggles. Dr. Marissa Blumenthal’s dream of becoming pregnant has turned into an obsession. A successful pediatrician, she will try any scientific method available to conceive—until the horrible secrets of an urban clinic erupt in a nightmare of staggering proportions. As more women reveal their similar struggles and as suspicious deaths begin to look like murder, it’s up to Marissa to uncover the truth behind her plight, no matter how dangerous a mission that might be. “Controversial... believable and chilling.”—Houston Chronicle

Thousands of measures are in use today to assess health and health care in the United States. Although many of these measures provide useful information, their usefulness in either gauging or guiding performance improvement in health and health care is seriously limited by their sheer number, as well as their lack of consistency, compatibility, reliability, focus, and organization. To achieve better health at lower cost, all stakeholders - including health professionals, payers, policy makers, and members of the public - must be alert to what matters most. What are the core measures that will yield the clearest understanding and focus on better health and well-being for Americans? Vital Signs explores the most important issues - healthier people, better quality care, affordable care, and engaged individuals and communities - and specifies a streamlined set of 15 core measures. These measures, if standardized and applied at national, state, local, and institutional levels across the country, will transform the effectiveness, efficiency, and burden of health measurement and help accelerate focus and progress on our highest health priorities. Vital Signs also describes the leadership and activities necessary to refine, apply, maintain, and revise the measures over time, as well as how they can improve the focus and utility of measures outside the core set. If health care is to become more effective and more efficient, sharper attention is required on the elements most important to health and health care. Vital Signs lays the groundwork for the adoption of core measures that, if systematically applied, will yield better health at a lower cost for all Americans.