Plan B : rescuing a planet under stress and a civilization in trouble / Lester R. Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Lester R. (Lester Russell), 1934-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Population.

Carbon dioxide--Environmental aspects.

Carbon dioxide.

Water-supply.

Environmental economics.

Physical Description:

xvii, 285 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Norton ; [Washington, D.C.] : Earth Policy Institute, [2003]

Summary:

Modern civilization is in trouble. We have created a bubble economy, one whose output is artificially inflated by overconsuming the earth's natural capital. Nowhere is the bubble economy more evident than in the food sector where the world grain harvest has been inflated by overpumping aquifers, a practice that virtually guarantees a future drop in production when aquifers are depleted. The wakeup call may come soon. In China, where water shortages are already shrinking the food supply, the grain harvest has fallen from 392 million tons in 1999 to 340 million tons in 2003. Within the next year or two as its grain reserves are depleted, China's 1.3 billion consumers will begin competing with U.S. consumers for U.S. grain. Given China's trade surplus with the United States of over $80 billion and strong buying power, this has the potential to drive up food prices worldwide. The resulting political instability in food-importing countries may convince us that business as usual -- Plan A -- is no longer a viable option.

The alternative is Plan B -- a worldwide mobilization to stabilize population and climate before these issues spiral out of control. The goal is to stabilize population close to the United Nations' low projection of 7.4 billion, to reduce carbon emissions by half by 2015, and to raise water productivity by half. Lester Brown puts forth a workable blueprint that can be enacted now. Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble is a way of sustaining economic progress worldwide, an alternative to continuing environmental deterioration and eventual economic decline.

Contents:

1. A Planet under Stress 3

Ecological Bills Coming Due 6

Farmers Facing Two New Challenges 8

Ecological Meltdown in China 11

Food: A National Security Issue 14

The Case for Plan B 18

I. A Civilization in Trouble

2. Emerging Water Shortages 23

Falling Water Tables 25

Rivers Running Dry 33

Farmers Losing to Cities 35

Scarcity Crossing National Borders 38

A Food Bubble Economy 39

3. Eroding Soils and Shrinking Cropland 42

Soil Erosion: Wind and Water 43

Advancing Deserts 46

Crops and Cars Compete for Land 49

The Land-Hungry Soybean 51

Grainland Gains and Losses 53

Spreading Land Hunger 56

4. Rising Temperatures and Rising Seas 59

The Temperature Record 60

The Yield Effect 62

Reservoirs in the Sky 67

Melting Ice and Rising Seas 69

More Destructive Storms 75

Subsidizing Climate Change 77

5. Our Socially Divided World 80

Life Expectancy: A Seminal Indicator 81

The Effects of the HIV Epidemic 82

Poverty and Hunger 86

Poverty and the Burden of Disease 88

The High Cost of Illiteracy 89

6. Plan A: Business as Usual 93

Accelerating Environmental Decline 95

Spreading Hunger, Growing Unrest 98

Streams of Environmental Refugees 100

Population Growth and Political Conflict 103

Plan A: Overwhelmed by Problems 108

II. The Response

Plan B

7. Raising Water Productivity 113

Adopting Realistic Prices 114

Raising Irrigation Water Productivity 117

Rainwater Harvesting 122

Raising Nonfarm Water Productivity 125

A Global Full-Court Press 129

8. Raising Land Productivity 131

Rethinking Land Productivity 133

Multiple Cropping 135

Raising Protein Efficiency 137

A Second Harvest 141

Saving Soil and Cropland 143

Restoring the Earth 147

9. Cutting Carbon Emissions in Half 151

Raising Energy Productivity 153

Harnessing the Wind 156

Converting Sunlight into Electricity 162

Energy from the Earth 165

Building the Hydrogen Economy 167

Cutting Carbon Emissions 171

10. Responding to the Social Challenge 176

Stabilizing Population 177

Universal Basic Education 181

Curbing the HIV Epidemic 184

Health for All 187

School Lunches for the Poor 190

Breaking Out 193

III. The Only Option

11. Plan B: Rising to the Challenge 199

Deflating the Bubble 200

A Wartime Mobilization 203

Creating an Honest Market 206

Shifting Taxes 210

Shifting Subsidies 214

A Call to Greatness 216.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [223]-272) and index.

ISBN:

039305859X

0393325237

OCLC:

52998575