World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse

by Lester R. Brown

We are in a race between political and natural tipping points. Can we close coal-fired power plants fast enough to save the Greenland ice sheet and avoid catastrophic sea level rise? Can we raise water productivity fast enough to halt the depletion of aquifers and avoid water-driven food shortages? Can we cope with peak water and peak oil at the same time? These are some of the issues Lester R. Brown skillfully distills in World on the Edge. Bringing decades of research and analysis into play, he provides the responses needed to reclaim our future.

Genres: Environment, Science, Nonfiction, Economics, Climate Change, Sustainability, Politics

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2011

About the author

Lester Russel Brown is an American environmentalist, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. BBC Radio commentator Peter Day calls him "one of the great pioneer environmentalists."

In the mid-1970s, Brown helped pioneer the concept of sustainable development, during a career that started with farming. As early as 1978, in his book The Twenty-Ninth Day, he was already warning of "the various dangers arising out of our manhandling of nature...by overfishing the oceans, stripping the forests, turning land into desert." In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings “have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.”

He has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, including, the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his "contributions to solving global environmental problems."

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short review: we should launch a few copies of this book into stable orbit so that one day when aliens arrive at the barren lifeless Earth they'll be able to read this book and say, "Oh, wow, so not only were they able to see and understand the damage they were doing, there were pretty reasonable steps they identified which they could have taken to avoid planetary suicide. Huh." Then they'll turn their saucers around and fly on to try to find some other planet where maybe "intelligent" life hadn't offed itself.

More nuance: this is a tough book to review. The writing style is choppy and quick. This is information that Brown could easily copy to PowerPoint slides. Heck, it might be his PowerPoint presentation. His argument, for all its infelicitous prose, is powerful, both about the dire situation we have created and the steps that we could take to make the world much, much better. (And in the process NOT ALL DIE.) His purpose is to appeal to (so-called) "hardheaded realists" and (so-called) "shrewd business minds" (read: self-satisfied exploiters of the current dying system) so I can excuse, given that audience, his consistent assumptions that it is possible to reform our current system so that it brings non-poverty and sustainability to all. I'd like to believe that. I'd like to believe that these hardheaded realists would perhaps pull their eyes away from their Green Idol for a few minutes to understand his arguments. I find it hard to believe. But I will try.

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't dispute that Brown is an eminent thinker in this area and agree with just about everything he discussed in this book. I also appreciate that he condensed his argument to two plane flights worth of reading. However, I have two complaints.
First, this book reads like someone converted a PowerPoint presentation into a novel. Each bullet point was stretched into a short paragraph. Every 3-4 paragraphs fit seamlessly together, but over the course of a chapter is got a bit bumpy. It seems that Brown's writing weapon of choice is a machine-gun assault of facts. I'm not sure if this was to keep things short or if humanity is really so screwed that he just couldn't decide which facts to exclude. As an aside, the first section of this book discussing the current state of the Earth and humanity is a bit frightening.
Second, I'm not sure if it's the current state of U.S. politics, the international news I hear each morning, or my natural cynicism, but I just can't believe that some of the suggested changes will happen in my lifetime without some cataclysmic disaster forcing action. Carbon taxes, Americans eating less red meat, and slashing the U.S. defense budget to pay for worldwide reproductive education? We had trouble phasing out the incandescent light bulb. If these sorts of measures are all that will save humanity, I might as well become one of those survivalist "preppers" showcased on the National Geographic Channel. There is no realistic way that many readers (or decision makers) today can accept what he is asking.
Overall, this is quite a gloomy call to arms. Though, Brown may be setting the tone that we refuse to admit is needed. Hopefully we never find out.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is an African saying: "Pretty words and truth are not the same." That wisdom holds true in many situations, but none so urgent as the one facing human beings on our planet. In short, we are changing the conditions in which we live, depleting the resources on which we depend, and increasing the likelihood that many billions of our brothers and sisters on this planet will suffer horrifically if we do not change our ways. Fast. Like, now.

This book is written in very clear prose. There are no bells and whistles. The author spells out the momentous challenges facing humanity--raising temperature, declining fresh water supplies, decreasing top soil, overpopulation, expanding deserts, increasing demand for an decreasing, or overly expensive, supply of food, and the very real problem of failed states. Likewise, Mr. Brown is quite clear about the causes of these burgeoning catastrophes: too many people using too many resources and producing too much carbon which makes our planet too hot, our climate too volatile, and our political systems too vulnerable to mass disruption.

Finally, the author spells out what he calls Plan B: a road map to reduce carbon, restore fertile soil, decrease global poverty, and limit population growth. I found myself nodding along in agreement with nearly every single point.

There is no hysteria in this book; it's not a screechy, preachy environmental finger-wag. It simply lays out the causes, the effects, and the potential solutions to the problems facing humanity at the dawn of the 21st century. You can download this book at the web address I've listed below, and I encourage you to do so. It is not a fun read, but it's not difficult to read, either. It is a sobering read, one filled with disturbing facts, and hopeful solutions for problems that seem intractable.

As I finished this book tonight, I couldn't help but juxtapose the looming environmental problems facing America with the end of our thirty year shuttle program. How has our country lost the spirit so beautifully summed up by John F. Kennedy at his inauguration as President in 1960:

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

We are facing a crisis the likes of which our nation, and our species, has never seen. America can lead, and should lead. Instead, we are cowering behind our own weaknesses, paralyzed by our own ignorance and anger, and allowing other powers to fill the vacuum we've let develop by ceding our traditional American initiative and abandoning our spirit of optimism.

We can do better. Much better. We went to the frigging moon, people. Let's get busy.

http://www.earth-policy.org/images/up...

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weirdly, despite other reviewers calling out this book for being too bleak, I found this way too pie in the sky. Brown points out all the environmentally destructive symptoms of capitalism without addressing the source. He puts way too much faith in federal governments and billionaire entrepreneurs to do the right (or even the financially sensible) things.

Capitalists will just never care about long-term externalities of their actions no matter how compelling the evidence against them because it's completely against their ethos.

Like, Brown posits that people will use water more efficiently if we raise water prices. Wouldn't that... just make water more inaccessible to poor people, incentivize the rich to hoard it for themselves, eventually triggering an Immortan Joe kinda situation? Brown used it in the context of crop management, not for drinking water, but it's difficult to separate the two.

Brown also consistently promotes selective cutting for lumber management in lieu of clearcutting without addressing hack-and-squirt, which is the extremely destructive tactic lumber companies actually take.

The section on solving poverty revolves around starting initiatives to get people to climb up the economic ladder, rather than to question the existence of that ladder in the first place. Brown quotes Jeffrey Sachs when he says "for the first time in history we have the technological and financial resources to eradicate poverty"--but he doesn't mention how those resources are dependent on the billionaires who hold them, and how governments don't have the willingness to seize them for the common good.

As it's written in 2010, it turns out Brown saw great hope in lofty projects that have either stalled or gone nowhere. Like the Tres Amigas super power station in New Mexico, which was supposed to be completed in 2014 and is still the works. Or federal programs started by Obama that were contingent on his successor giving any modicum of a shit about the environment, which, well... At least the coal industry is still in a downward spiral.

The first half of the book, in which Brown breaks down the different ways in which the world is collapsing environmentally and economically, is good, at least. He explained overpopulation really well, how it's not that we can't produce the resources to sustain our current population, but we can't produce them sustainably for the environment by depleting fossil aquifers and sucking other resources dry.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very important because of it's first two parts; 1) A Deteriorating Foundation, and 2) the Consequences These first seven chapters are essential to understanding and planning for the near future. I thought I was aware, but this book opened my eyes wider, so to speak. I learned that the shrinking of cropland and climate-crisis-induced tapering off of snowmelt and such is exacerbated by the over-pumping of groundwater supplies, so that we're faced with a food production crisis.

This book will, in conjunction with others, help me plan the next decade or so of my life.
I hope it is widely read. While the third part is overly optimistic and advocates an overly centralized development model, it too is important to have widely read, as we need to come to grips with how to alleviate this pickle we're in here on earth.

[Kurtbg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good read that covers issues of people, animals, and the planet they inhabit are going through or towards. The first half covers cases of the current issues such as desertification, energy, food scarcity, over-population, consumption, etc. Not an upbeat, but a necessary, topic to explore. The second half brought a little bit of positiveness to the discussion, which is something I hadn't felt after reading other books on the such topics.

A highly recommended read for those looking to be better informed about global challenges.

[John Swallow · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave the book two stars for several reasons and the principle ones are because I downloaded and read this for free as a PDF, if I'd paid for the book I would have been very disappointed at myself and also that a resource, paper, had been used to present this generally speaking, total bit on anthropogenic global warming nonsense.

Brown starts out with the heat wave that struck the Moscow area last year and says that is a sign of global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. I note that when it is a warming event, it is deemed to be climate change, but when it is three consecutive cold, snowy winters in a row, then it is "weather".

Then on page 11 he mentions that the food shortages:
"For the last century's closing decades,
the number of chronically hungry and malnourished people
worldwide was shrinking, dropping to a low of 788
million by 1996. Then it began to rise--slowly at first,
and then more rapidly--as the massive diversion of grain
to produce fuel for cars doubled the annual growth in
grain consumption." Is he wanting to blame this on the energy companies?

Then he launches into a discussion of Failing states and seems not to realize that these states have one main factor in common, They are Islamic and as such will always be failing states under such an unchanging set of restrictions imposed by this unholy cult, It is just a fact.
"As a result, the Yemenis now import more
than 80 percent of their grain. With its meager oil exports
falling, with no industry to speak of, and with nearly 60
percent of its children stunted and chronically undernourished,
this poorest of the Arab countries is facing a
bleak future." pg.22 So what is his answer to this ongoing problem?

Then on pg.37 he offers up this:
"In some situations, the threat to topsoil comes primarily
from overplowing, as in the U.S. Dust Bowl, ..."pg.37 He fails to tell the whole story about the 10 year long drought in the 30s that created this situation.

Then he offers up this untruth:
"When a site in south central Pakistan hit 128 degrees Fahrenheit on
May 26th, it set not only a new national record, but also
a new all-time high for Asia.4 pg. 46
The record is actually this: Asia; Tirat Tsvi, Israel, June 21, 1942, (129F):

It appears that this is where he is getting his main inspiration:
"James Hansen, the U.S. government's leading climate scientist, asks, "Would
these events have occurred if atmospheric carbon dioxide
had remained at its pre-industrial level of 280 ppm [parts
per million]?" The answer, he says, is "almost certainly
not." pg.46
It is really strange how a trace gas that makes up .038% of the earth's atmosphere and is 1.5 times heavier than air, CO2, can now have such a devastating impact on the earth's climate when it never did in the past.

Brown doesn't know what the climate of the past was, recall that there obviously was an ice age that ended 12,000 or so years ago and man nor burning coal had not one thing to do with the advance nor the decline of the glaciers and now he can't even predict two years into the future with any reasonable degree of accuracy because he mentions Hurricane Katrina and doesn't mention that since 2005 we have had the most quiet hurricane seasons since the Civil War. Another case in point:
"A preliminary analysis of rising temperature effects
on three major river systems in the western United
States--the Columbia, the Sacramento, and the
Colorado--indicates that the winter snow pack in the
mountains feeding them will be reduced dramatically
and that winter rainfall and flooding will increase.
With a business-as-usual energy policy, global climate
models project a 70-percent reduction in the snow pack
for the western United States by mid-century."pg.53 I guess he is unaware that last winter caused some places in these areas to have 300% of normal snow packs, which is good, but not what he wants one to believe.

The food problems are mainly tied to corrupt governments that are mostly Islamic and how is a nation to maximize any kind of production under such conditions?
"In Sudan, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP),
the provider of grain for 2 million people in Darfur
refugee camps, faced a difficult mission. During the first
three months of 2008, some 56 grain-laden trucks were
hijacked. The hunger relief effort itself broke down. In
Pakistan, where flour prices had doubled, food security
became a national concern. Thousands of armed Pakistani
troops were assigned to guard grain elevators and
trucks hauling wheat."
pg.59

One of the very few statements that Brown made is this and I concur whole heartily that prime farm land should not be turned into Wal-Mart parking lots to sell made in China goods to stupid Americans too lazy to walk anywhere.

Then Brown gets into the raising oceans and it takes very little research to find out that is not true and the polar ice caps are not melting, as he states, nor are the glaciers disappearing for the reasons he would like for folks to believe. Remember the IPCC getting caught in a similar forecast that made them look like the fools that they are?

Brown seems to have a love affair with wind power. He says that:
"Denmark is looking to push the wind share of its electricity
to 50 percent by 2025, with most of the additional
power coming from offshore. In contemplating this
prospect, Danish planners have turned conventional
energy policy upside down. They plan to use wind as the
mainstay of their electrical generating system and to use
fossil-fuel-generated power to fill in when the wind dies
down." pg.120
This is the truth about the true cost of his wind power:
Global electricity price comparison
Canada 6.18= US cents/1kWh
Denmark 42.89=
France 19.25=
Germany 30.66=
Ireland 23.89=
Italy 37.89=
UK 18.59=
Sweden 27.34=
Spain 19.69=
Netherlands 34.70=
USA 11.20= (this is for year 2011; so, is coal all that bad?)

But Brown has his Plan B. "Plan B calls for phasing in a worldwide carbon tax of $200 per ton by 2020, while offsetting it at each step of the way with a reduction in income taxes." pg.97
Just how much income tax is a starving to death Somalia going to pay no matter what his "carbon Tax" is?
This discussion did make me recall that a man that had more influence on world food production than any one else in the last century died Sept. 12, 2009 and I doubt that more than a hand full of people even knew about it or what Norman Borlaug had done for humanity. Luther Burbank, who died in 1926 and did work on the potato that bears his name, needs to also be mentioned. One would not want to proclaim accolades for the man that started the Green Revolution that introduced high yielding grains to Mexico that allowed that country to become an exporter of wheat and allowed India and Pakistan to double their wheat yields between 1965 & 1970 and made Paul R. Ehrlich and his 1968 bestseller "The Population Bomb," look like the fiction it is. It is interesting to note that in the past when the Norwegians were at themselves, they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to him in 1970. The honor for what use to be a prestigious prize has now been eroded to where it is basically worthless and that is sad.

Brown is so far out of touch with reality because of his believing that carbon is his big enemy when in fact it is because of the use of carbon fuels that humanity prospered in the developed countries and, as they developed and their life style improved, their reproductive rates dropped to the point that they are not sustaining their populations and of course have a democratic political system rather than a theocratic bunch of idiots in control also helped.

[Sarah Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instilling fear in the heart of a person is a very strategic tactic to grab a reader’s attention - and Brown utilizes this idea. The first half of the book addresses the issues the world is facing currently and the consequences that will result if things continue the way they are. Pirates taking over ships in the Indian Ocean, neighboring countries of failing states being susceptible to corruption, aquifers gradually being depleted of water, food prices spiking as a result of future food scarcity and climate change bring about a sense of worry. The mention of large dust storms lasting for days and the human fatalities/loss of livestock associated with them are enough to make any person cringe. Readers living in coastal areas will be horrified to read that their homes and neighboring cities are subject to being permanently under water due to glacier melting in the northern and southern hemispheres. Rising global temperatures will result in less crop harvesting and could ultimately reach numbers that are unlivable for many species on Earth. The great news is that this isn’t Earth’s inevitable future; there is hope. The Plan B solution Brown proposes in the second half of the book is made up of a practical set of goals; eighty percent reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2020, world population stabilization of eight billion by the year 2040, the nonexistence of poverty and “restoration of forests, soils [primarily topsoil], aquifers and fisheries” (p.13). The goal addressing carbon emission is broken down even further into three main elements: making the world energy economy more efficient while shifting the transport sector from private to public, replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy and end deforestation while campaigning to plant trees and stabilize soils (p.96). While the goals all sound accomplishable in my opinion, trying to stop tree cutting seems impossible. Not only would it leave a lot of people unemployed, but there would have to be a substitute material for making furniture and paper would only be made available through previously-recycled paper. Brown makes note of countries already accomplishing the elements he proposes, like China having a rapid railway system (p.106), wind farms in the United States (p.118) and Japan’s Toyota company designing plug-in hybrid vehicles (p.108).
Humans are driven to the point of action when times become difficult; especially when an issue directly affects oneself. Brown wrote this book as a wake-up call and as a plea to urge people into action; to start doing something today - before all of Earth’s systems are plummeting (or figuratively falling off the edge). To restructure the environment will take a large scale, rapid mobilization of the human population. To propose this isn’t far-fetched, because the United States went into action with stunning speed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (p. 196-197). The economy, which is centered around industrialization, needs to shift and focus on restoring Earth’s natural resources as well as educate in terms of being literate, investing in local food and family planning. Brown proposes the cost of restoration and education to be around one hundred and eighty five billion dollars (p.199). This may seem like a lot, but compared to the global military budget of one thousand, five hundred and twenty-two billion dollars, it’s just a small fraction ! So what can you do? The book provides lots of solutions! Be informed, organize a small group and advocate against something (e.g. divestment from fossil fuels), plant trees in your neighborhood, educate yourself on where your food comes from, support local family farms, reduce your carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint, recycle, take public transportation, ride a bike, drive an electric car (to name a few).
Why should this book be of any interest to the common reader and not just environmentalists? Just on the fact that Earth is the place you, your family, relatives and close friends call home should be more than enough reason. Earth is the one and only sustainable planet for a large diversity of life; life which became abundant through the presence of water, oxygen and the atmosphere. If the Earth’s resources [e.g. water, timber, soil] are expended to their full capacity, then all life as we know it will cease to exist. There were also a few instances where Brown mentions if our generation isn’t the one to deal with the depletion of natural resources, it’ll be our children and our children’s children. The question then becomes - is it a good idea to bring a child into the world when that child finds life more harmful than enjoyable? Even though deforestation might not be happening directly in one’s backyard, that action allows for less intake of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a large contributor to greenhouse gases which increase temperatures globally. Since the book’s publication date in the year 2011, there’s the hope that the changes proposed by Brown have taken affect even more than previously mentioned. As an intellectual human being on this planet, one cannot simply sit back and think others will take the initiative. If the majority of people think the other is going to make an effort to sustain the planet, not much change will result.
Overall, I was very pleased with this book. I have a better grasp on the extent of deforestation, glacial melting, soil erosion and crop importation. I also read about concepts I’d never known before; such as food bubbles (p. 23), environmental refugees (p.72-73) and failing states (p.86-89). I was also introduced to fossil aquifers (p. 23) and coal ash (p.189). Brown has a way of addressing several ideas and not focusing too much on any one region of the world. It’s not easy to publish something slightly over two hundred pages in length when the entire world is the subject. I especially recommend this book to those of who enjoy statistical data because there is a lot of data mentioned throughout the reading; if not at least five numbers per page! The statistics are both good and bad in that it shows Brown is very educated in the matter - but at the same time, it’s a lot of specific information which can become overwhelming very quickly. At the end of each subsection, it reads, “Data, endnotes and additional resources can be found on Earth Policy’s website, at www.earth-policy.org”. Prior to reading this book, I never saw an author not list off their sources in a proper format following a body of text. I went onto the website and it wasn’t difficult to locate the sources (which were a series of datasets) under each chapter of the book. Had these datasets been in the book, I estimate it would’ve easily added an additional fifty pages. There are ‘Additional Resources’ listed, eight pages in length, before the Index section too. This refers to articles, books and other websites other than the Earth Policy Institute that touched on topics within ‘The World on Edge’. As a result of reading this book, I’m much more conscientious of my electricity and water use. I take the initiative to recycle any chance I can, replant pine trees that spring up in my mom’s rock garden, turn the lights off if I’m the last person in a room, consume very little meat, take less than ten minute showers and turn the water off when brushing my teeth. It may not seem like much, but if everyone were more environmentally conscious, the world’s health will improve greatly.

[David Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work addresses the most pressing issue of our era: how to reverse society's dangerous course toward major environmental, economic, and human catastrophe. The first half of the book is sobering (and somewhat depressing). It lays out the variety of problems we face and the consequences if we continue on our current destructive and unsustainable trajectory. The second half proposes some solutions to these problems that will help us reverse course and avoid these consequences, if we can implement Brown's "Plan B" proposals in time. Touching on public policy, environmental science, demography, energy policy, tax policy, and government spending, this is a comprehensive look at how to develop an integrated approach to these issues.

One area that Brown does not devote much attention to is what anyone can do at the individual or community level to contribute to the solutions, nor to how governments or NGOs can build the political will in the public to gain support for most of these revolutionary approaches. But this work should convince most people that problems exist, there will be serious repercussions if we do not address these problems, and the solutions will not be easy. Highly recommended for any concerned environmentalist or global citizen.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

So while I would recommend this to anyone interested in a global perspective on water/energy/climate problems, I have serious feasibility issues around the plan to fix them. I think that, even with such a high level plan as this, it should be possible to do better allocation of who is paying (I don’t think the security argument will fly with the vast majority of voters), and I don’t know how useful the energy plan is. Showing that the potential for wind and solar exceeds global demand by a lot is not very interesting (we know this) - showing where you’d tap it, how you’d handle extra powerlines, and how we’d deal with reliability and variability issues would be. This might lead to some unrealistic optimism from folks who read this - but the background and general outline is good enough that they should do it anyway.

[Teague · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty bleak picture of global climate disaster but real solutions abound under two main headings: earth restoration and basic social goals. Earth restoration includes: protecting biological diversity (includes drastic reduction in carbon emission), stabilizing water tables, restoring rangelands, restoring fisheries, protecting topsoil on crop land, planting trees. Basic social goals include: universal primary education, eradication of adult literacy, school lunch programs, aid to women, infants, preschool children, reproductive health and family planning, universal basic health care. These goals would total 28% of USA's military budget. Doable but the political will is not there yet. What will it take? Will it be too late?

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and compelling-- I read it in a single sitting on a flight from Boston to San Francisco. This book outlines all of the factors that are pushing human society and the global ecosystem over the edge and to the point of no return, and what we need to do to stop it-- mainly though reforestation, cutting carbon emissions, raising literacy rates especially among women, and improving access to reproductive health care. The only problem is that it's very developed world-centric-- it doesn't really take into account states that are already failed, such as Somalia. But great ideas and definitely worth reading.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brown is a brilliant writer who knows how to make environmental issues accessible. He sets down an agenda and uses real world examples of countries and cities doing green things to use as models for the necessary transition to a new energy economy that is mandatory for the world not to be seriously affected by climate change. He manages to make an otherwise depressing and debilitating topic into one with positive, realistic solutions. He has condensed the material into fewer pages than his previous books making it even more approachable. This is a must read for anyone who is eco-conscious or for anyone who wants to learn more about the pressing environmental issues we currently face.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a good job of presenting the challenge ahead of us and laying out a realistic plan for dealing with it all.

Though I'm pessimistic about reducing emissions in the transportation sector, at least in North America. The rest of the world, sure. But I really don't think we can get baby boomers to stop driving and use public transportation, carbon tax or no. So I don't think North America has a chance in that area for at least another generation.

The rest is cool though. I liked the stuff about agriculture and combating soil erosion.

[Alejandro Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a lot of things that we need to do in orther to face our climate crisis. One of the most interesting things that the author shows, is that it brings a lot of economics and biologys details of how we got into this awkward humankind situation.
He also brings a lot of solutions and hope for those who are really worrierd about future nature. you must read this book, if you want to change this environmentaly destruction!

[Kate Cardenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this book be read by all freshman in high school right now so they understand why its so necessary for us to make changes to save th earth that we pollute everyday. I took this for my online class at Bunea Vista University (BVU) and it really changed my views on many enviormental issues today.

[William Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for someone who knows little about the environmental crisis. If you are already well aware of the dangers, the book is a depressing 1,001 ways to say "the world is falling apart." The second half does provide reasonable solutions though. If you're an optimist looking for solutions jump right to page 99.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read (I read it in a day, which is unheard of for me) - good for a high-level take on environmental issues and possible solutions. I'll stress "high-level," though, as his proposed policy solutions (under "Plan B," though I'm not sure that we ever had a Plan A) barely skim the surface.

[Arlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is a pretty thorough analysis of the economic and environmental failures of humanity and our overuse of the planet. I found the reading to be pretty dry though, although I did find it to be interesting enough for me to finish it within a few days.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in 2011 so it was a bit dated. However, it still covered all the current issues, and its solutions (the second half of the book, Plan B) reflect more hope than many of us have now.

A few excerpts:

Page 7: “…it would take 1.5 Earths to sustain our current consumption. Environmentally, the world is in overshoot mode. … the global decline of the economy’s natural support system … is well underway.”

Page 16: “…Plan B has four components: a massive 80 percent cut in global carbon emissions by 2020 and the stabilization of the world population at no more than 8 billion by 2040.”

My comment: Since the book’s publication in 2011 (except for a temporary dip in 2020 likely due to Covid), global emissions have only increased and are now at an all-time high at 37 billion tons per year. And our population already reached 8 billion in 2023, well before the author’s hopeful projection of 2040.

Page 23: “There are two sources of irrigation water: underground water and surface water. Most underground water comes from aquifers that are regularly replenished with rainfall … But a distinct minority of aquifers are fossil aquifers—containing water put down eons ago. Since these do not recharge, irrigation ends when they are pumped dry. Among the more prominent fossil aquifers are the Ogallala underlying the U.S. Great Plains, the Saudi one … and the deep aquifer under the North China Plain.”

Page 30: “In Mexico, … in the agricultural state of Guanajuato, the water table is falling by 6 feet or more a year. In the northwestern wheat-growing state of Sonora, farmers once pumped water from the Hermosillo aquifer at a depth of 40 feet. Today, they pump from over 400 feet. … Mexico’s food bubble may soon burst.”

My comment: Rechargeable aquifers in the U.S. are also being overpumped, as are fossil aquifers that will run dry, such as the Ogallala.

Page 114: “Manufacturing the nearly 28 billion plastic bottles used each year to package water in the United States alone requires the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil. This—combined with the energy used to refrigerate and haul the bottled water in trucks, sometimes over hundreds of miles—means the U.S. bottled water industry consumes roughly 50 million barrels of oil per year, equal to 13 percent of U.S. oil imports from Saudi Arabia.”

Page 178: “An American living high on the food chain with a diet heavy in grain-intensive livestock products, including red meat, consumes twice as much grain as the average Italian and nearly four times as much as the average Indian. Adopting a Mediterranean diet can cut the grain footprint of Americans roughly in half, reducing carbon emissions accordingly.”

Page 193: “If we cannot mobilize to save the Greenland ice sheet, we probably cannot save civilization as we know it.”

This was a thought-provoking book full of statistics and data but still engaging and readable. I sometimes rolled my eyes at his optimism (like, yeah, we’re going to suddenly reduce our emissions by 80%). He listed a thousand things to be optimistic about, all the projects for alternative energy and fuel efficiency. And sure, they’re all great. But, apparently, they’re not lowering our CO2 emissions as they continue to climb, as does our population.

So I don’t share his optimism. I envy the hope he had in 2011 when he and other authors could say, “There’s still time!” This morning, I watched the sun rise as a deep orange ball, likely due to the fires in California – no smoke here, fortunately, at least for now. But the big Park Fire north of us may be affecting the hue of the sun. I’m keeping track of the fire and some smaller ones on the CalFire website.

Regardless of my pessimism, I do my part in 100 ways with my lifestyle, my diet, and my politics, and the organizations I continue to fund. Because, well … what else can I do?

Despite my cynicism, or maybe because of it, I highly recommend this book.

[Bioteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ci troviamo in un periodo storico molto particolare. Mai prima di oggi una generazione si è trovata di fronte ad un bivio così importante. Da un lato possiamo ignorare i segnali di allarme che vengono continuamente lanciati da una comunità scientifica sempre più preoccupata di fronte a problematiche quali il riscaldamento globale, la riduzione della disponibilità di acqua potabile, il sovrasfruttamento agricolo e alieutico, ecc. La seconda opzione che possiamo considerare prevede la presa di coscienza di fronte a queste problematiche globali per meglio affrontare le sfide che si profilano all'orizzonte. Dal 1980 circa l'impronta ecologica globale ha superato la capacità rigenerativa del pianeta. Da quell'anno stiamo consumando in modo assolutamente insostenibile le risorse naturali, compromettendo la capacità del pianeta stesso di elargire i numerosi e fondamentali servizi ecosistemici che permettono il nostro sostentamento e la sopravvivenza delle altre specie viventi. L'analisi che Lester Brown fa in questo saggio è estremamente aggiornata e affidabile. Se non correggeremo la nostra rotta nel giro di pochi decenni la civiltà che noi conosciamo sarà travolta da quella che viene definita le tempesta perfetta ovvero la manifestazione contemporanea di diverse crisi (ambientale, economica, energetica) che metteranno a dura prova la sopravvivenza di numerosi stati, che già si trovano in gravi difficoltà. La soluzione esiste ma bisogna agire in fretta e soprattutto la nostra generazione deve essere promotrice di una rivoluzione culturale radicale che tenga conto del fatto che il nostro pianeta è un sistema limitato che va mantenuto e gestito con estrema cura.

[Hannah S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for a reader like me who has been feeling overwhelmed and frankly, hopeless about the climate crisis. Brown states the facts about the issues we’re facing, and addresses each issue with a plan of what we can do about it. It also details the initiatives countries are already taking to move toward a more sustainable future. Overall this book reinforces the fears we should have without focusing on the doom and gloom and makes the climate crisis feel like something we can tackle. Well researched and well organized.

[Sachin Ganpat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of techo-optimsm but does promote systematic change

Like many books on the topic of climate change this one is full of techno-optimism. But to their credit, it does say that in order for any change to occur our industrial society needs to change and that requires our entire system to align.

For a fairly old book on the topic, it's still topical, which is depressing that not much has changed.

The book is spoilt due to the lack of sources embedded in the text. It points to a website that no longer exists and couldn't find the info elsewhere.

[Cengiz Aytun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hızlıca göz gezdirdim. Fazlasıyla eski bilgilerle dolu. İmla hataları ve çeviride bazı kavramların yanlış kullanıldığını fark ettim. Lester Brown'un yeni kitaplarında (Plan B gibi) benzer bilgilerin güncel haline ulaşabilirsiniz.

[Andrea Samorini]

___________________________________
FROM BOOK: Metà della Terra. Salvare il futuro della vita (Edward O. Wilson)

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my AP class at school and I thought it was okay but had so many statistics that I had a hard time really taking anything in.

[Xovee Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

上架建议是科普，更是对我们的严重警告 作者所奋斗的事情，值得我们关注、尊敬，并且去实现。

[Jared Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 2010 it uniquely describes the world we live in and the troubles it faces regarding climate, the environment, and possible economic collapse. Reading it in 2020 with many of the issues written about coming true was an eye opener, but also many of the actions described in the book that are needed to stave off catastrophe were and are being undertaken. Whether they were implemented in time is what the next ten years will reveal.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found this book to be a shorter summary of his other books. He outlines some problems in the first part, then gives his ideas for solutions in the second (third?). I definitely recommend it if you want to read a shorter book about the subject, as it's probably one of the more concise titles out there at the moment.

That being said, he packs a lot into those few pages. He talks a lot about the usual countries and topics, but as a fan of his work, I say he does a nice job outlining solutions. He is less of the we're screwed type and more in the "here's some ideas we should try" camp. I find that to be much more interesting than hand wringing. If nothing else, his ideas should spur some debate in the community about what really is the best path.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lester Brown's work tackled the environmental and economic problems that threaten the sustainability of our civilization. He shows the problems, the consequences, and offers solutions in what he calls a "Plan B." His Plan B focuses on four main goals: stabilizing climate, stabilizing population, eradicating poverty, and restoring the earth's natural support systems. The book is at times bleak and slightly repetitive, but it's also thought-provoking and very challenging to the accepted status quo of how we live our lives as wasteful, head-in-the-sand Americans.