Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

by Lester R. Brown

"How to build a more just world and save the planet....We should all heed Brown's advice."―Bill Clinton
In this updated edition of the landmark Plan B, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization. The world faces many environmental trends of disruption and decline, including rising temperatures and spreading water shortage. In addition to these looming threats, we face the peaking of oil, annual population growth of 70 million, a widening global economic divide, and a growing list of failing states. The scale and complexity of issues facing our fast-forward world have no precedent

With Plan A, business as usual, we have neglected these issues overly long. In Plan B 3.0 , Lester R. Brown warns that the only effective response now is a World War II-type mobilization like that in the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Science, Economics, Politics, Sustainability, Business

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2008

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

[Rainbowgardener · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a good book if you want to have data to hand to talk to people about what is going on with our planet and what things we need to be doing and could be doing.

I started it once before and got bogged down in the 120 pp at the beginning detailing all the catastrophes in process--deteriorating oil and food security, rising temperatures and rising seas, water shortages, collapsing natural systems. I read all that stuff all the time and it is grim and depressing.

So this time through I skipped that section and went straight to the what we should be doing. It is a good detailed list--restoring the earth, feeding everyone, designing cities for people, raising energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources instead of burning fossil fuels--but again nothing I haven't heard a lot before. It's good on showing how it could be practical, giving eg's of where each of these things is being done (i.e. every where but the U.S.!) and how little it would cost, compared to say the money we gave AIG to bail them out and got nothing back for.

But the BURNING QUESTION is how to we get the political will together to do any of these things. In a country where fewer people admit to the reality of global climate change than did a few years ago, in a country where more people now believe Obama is a Muslim than did before he was elected, how do we make the "wartime crash mobilization" that the author keeps saying is necessary happen?

On this he is nearly silent. He has two pages at the very end "what can you and I do." Answers: write or email your elected representative .. gather some like minded friends together to meet with your elected representative ..."in short, we need to persuade our elected leaders to support these changes. We need to lobby them for these changes as though our future depended on it." ... write an op ed piece for your local newspaper or write a letter to the editor. That is the sum total of every one of his suggestions. Very disappointing.

I spent most of my spare time this spring working with Sierra Club's Clean Energy Campaign trying to get some kind of clean energy bill passed. We wrote letters. We went to all kinds of places and got other people to write letters. We met with our local elected officials (or their staffs, it's actually hard to get access to them in person) and handed them 500 letters we had collected and read some of them out loud. We wrote op-ed and letters to the editor, some of which actually got published, and got others to do so. We had call in days where we flooded their voice mail with hundreds of messages. ETCETERA!!

Result? The Senate is still refusing to even consider a bill. And this is with a Democratic president who promised in his campaign to make clean energy a focus and with a Democratically controlled House and Senate.

I have known since the early 70's, back when I used to call myself a non-violent revolutionary, that we need a total restructuring and reorganization. What I have never known is how to make it happen. Time is running out to figure it out and we need better answers than Lester Brown's!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was exciting to hear how much is being done already in terms of renewable energy, with lots more in the building or planning phases. The author calls for a an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (not very far away), but makes it sound like a very reachable goal. We have the technology, we just have to have the political will (particularly here in the U.S., which lags way behind the rest of the developed world) to make it happen. In the "what you and I can do" section at the end of the book, I was surprised that the author didn't say things like "buy EnergyStar appliances and a hybrid vehicle" (although he did say things like this in the course of the book), but instead left off with a take-home message of "keep writing to your congressmen and senators--even meet with them in person if possible--for as long as it takes for them to get the message that we have to do this now." The earth's ecological systems are on the point of collapse and won't wait, and while individual purchasing decisions do make a difference, what the only way to really avert the end of civilization as we know it is to change public policies and start investing in and subsidizing renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.

[moe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this edition in 2025, wrote mostly in 2007 and 2008, left me discouraged about our battle against climate change. While I have heard and read much on many issues presented in this book, such as rising sea levels and deforestation, it was nice to have the information consolidated so well. Some issues, such as rampant wildfires that plague this decade, are not covered and perhaps they were unfathomable at that time. We have already missed some important targets, such as exceeding the annual 1.5c increase of average temperatures, which happened 02/2023 to 01/2024. We are living with the consequences now, in Ontario Canada we are in a 5th heat wave of the summer and August isn't even half over.

I'd be interested a similar more recent book about the issues, updated to reflect our reality and movement on climate incitatives presented like increasing wind and geothermal power generation, composting toilets, and the fight to eradicate HIV/AIDS. I have a feeling that progress was not as dramatic as hoped by the author. More solutions and actions the reader can take would have been nice: it seemed like an overlooked end note of the book that was rushed in at the editors request. Letter writing to politicians, protesting, and participating at home in green initiatives hasn't done the trick yet. It is not only politicians who need to be held accountable to the population anymore, we must consider the role mega-corporations in this day and age.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really can't say enough about this book. It seems to me particularly well researched, pragmatic in its approach to solving some of the toughest environmental and social problems facing global civilization.

I would consider myself pretty well versed when it comes to issues potentially bearing the fall of civilization. I've spent a stint as a grad student atmospheric science, I enjoy entertaining outsider theories, i regularly read journals on ocean biochemistry and food security, however the way that Plan B is organized is extremely effective.

It is attempting to serve as a plan for saving society by 2020 and it does this by implementing approaches already employed by a few countries but on a global scale. The solutions are based on current economic realities and while ambitious, also seem attainable.

I would recommend this book to concerned people who may already know a lot of the information regarding environmental decline and possible societal collapse, people who may be increasingly wary of the green washing campaigns that attempt to tell us we can buy our way out of any problem.

Plan B advocates consuming less animal products, alternatives to car culture, and other ways of reducing consumption that are backed up by hundreds of referenced works.

I learned that switching from a typical western diet to a plant based one is the equivalent from switching from regular Suburban SUV use to a Prius.

Note: Since plan B calls for orchestrated cooperation on a global scale it most definitely will not be enjoyed by people truly fearful of government consolidation and the emergence of one world government, population control and the like.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more relevant than ever with climate volatility and resource scarcity so obviously more critical than it's ever been, and continuing for the forseeable future.

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lester Brown and his team compile an extraordinary amount of scientific research to produce this compelling treatise on the status of the world specific to our environment, our natural resources and the opportunities for humanity to either self-destruct or thrive.

The first 127 pages are difficult to read, as they detail all the catastrophic processes that are taking place, from massive-scale desertification to the depletion of water tables and the potentially irreversable climate changes. The notion of sea levels rising 39 feet in the next few decades, with 600 million displaced coastal dwellers... I had more than one night of sleeplessness because of this book.

However, Brown and his team also catalog the progres sthat is being made, the stunning advances in energy and agricultural technologies and the hope that we still have to save our planet, and hence ourselves.

A MUST READ if you're interested in the world beyond your home and how its fate will affect you.

[Robert Negut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it just to pick something from the Library's poor environmental section, but the timing's somewhat interesting, since the Plan's target was 2020 and you can see how the situation worsened because very little was done. Many problems are correctly identified and in some ways we're even worse off than anticipated. I particularly liked the focus on population, which is repeatedly listed in connection and leading to most other issues, which can't be solved without first solving this one. And quite a number of the proposed solutions are good, and quite clearly necessary.
They're far from sufficient, however, tending to be incremental reforms despite stressing the need for a complete overhaul. Worse, instead of aiming to dismantle and replace capitalism, many proposals are based on the market, which can't lead to anywhere near enough advances towards the goals and would crush the poor. After all, instead of the predicted collapse leading to a fundamental shift, the economic crisis that followed shortly after publication resulted in even more efforts and resources put into preserving the status quo, which is happening again now. In addition, it's entirely anthropocentric, with hardly a thought spared for nature and other species in themselves, the problems of "green" development being basically ignored in a race to maximize output. And if the energy chapter would be an example of that, the food one is even worse, largely promoting even more intensive, industrial agriculture. But what bothered me the most was that the population problem was presented as almost exclusively affecting poor countries and being solvable through those nice, voluntary measures that are necessary but nowhere near sufficient, when the even greater immediate need is to stop the better off from having children. Worse, the stated goal was stabilization, reduction and growth being presented as equally unsustainable, which is ludicrous on a terribly overpopulated world.
Otherwise, it's a hard read, mostly facts and data, and the Romanian translation I read seemed rushed, with a number of typos, some strange wording and no consistency regarding measurement units. The notes were left entirely in English, however, including the chapter names.

[Cengiz Aytun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ekolojik sorunlarla ilgilenen çoğu kitapta gördüğüm en büyük sorun yapılacakların listesini oluşturmakla işin biteceğini düşünmek. Görünen o ki mesele neyi yapmamız gerektiğini bilmememiz değil. Biliyoruz aslında. Ama kah yapmak istemiyoruz, kah işimize gelmiyor. Sıkıntı insanın dışında değil özünde. Doğaya ve geleceğe olan bakışında. 5 yıl sonrası bile bizim için sisler içinde. Hele hele de biz öldükten sonrası bizim için adeta masal alemi. Geleceğe yönelik kendi algımız bu kadar sınırlı iken politikacıların seçimlerden ötesini düşünmesini beklememiz saflık değil mi? Ben bu konuda çaba sarf etsem de çevreme baktığımda umutsuzluğa kapılıyorum doğrusu.

[mowensmd · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2022, this is just a sad, sad look at what humanity failed to do. Comparison to the books goals for 2020 show that we are only now even beginning to address what we should have 15 years ago. The book also did not predict how much energy use increased, making the stated goals even more anemic. We have truly behaved as criminals to our World.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most complete overview of the conservation challenges our planet faces that I have come across, yet still written in a clear and engaging prose.

[Madison Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

i want to see updated statistics now that it’s been 17 years!

[Nicholas Marrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plan B is a proposal of what steps must be taken to reverse current trends of environmental destruction and preserve civilization. The 3.0 is because this is the third revision of the Plan which has become gradually more dire as time moves on.

The book is split into two sections. The first covers the environmental and societal problems that we are already experiencing and will soon experience. It covers topics as diverse as food, oil, water, environmental destruction, disease and global warming. Brown includes extensive references for his figures. The writing is concise and includes a wealth of information in a relatively small number of pages.

The second section covers the plan to solve the problems laid out in the first section. The chapters cover ending hunger and poverty, restoring the natural systems of the earth, feeding our rising population, raising efficiency, city design and renewable energy. Living in Los Angeles, I was particularly struck by the chapter, "Designing Cities for People." As in, designing cities for people, not cars. The plan is comprehensive and does not pull punches. It is the antithesis of supermarket magazine shelves promising "25 easy ways you can save the environment." Saving the environment is not something you can do without changing fundamental aspects of your lifestyle.

This book has profoundly effected my outlook on life, the future, the problems facing society and the solution that we as a species must take if we are to save civilization as we know it. I would highly recommend it to anyone, not only to those who fancy themselves environmentalists. The book is available for free from the Earth Policy Institute at http://www.earthpolicy.org. I purchased a copy, underlined many passages and took extensive notes in the margins.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty intense. If it's your first exposure to the effects of global warming, hold on to your seat... it's going to be a bumpy ride! Perhaps my gloom-and-doom-o-meter was reading high because I read this while (literally) sick to my stomach, trapped in bed... but I think not. Try to read quickly through the "this is the problem" section and move on to the "solutions" section. The solutions are big and complex, but generally speaking, I think there are things that individuals can do to contribute toward the big solutions, even if you're not into political action.

I felt a little bit panicky reading this book... like many people did just before 1/1/00, wondering if the computers would still work and the groceries would arrive at the store. I'm considering planting a small garden this summer just to see if I can, kind of like preschool for learning to produce my own food. This is one major thing that I wish I felt confident I could do on my own.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a revelation to me. Of course, I realized that there were serious environmental risks to the planet, and that a major shift to renewable energy was required. But I didn't fully understand just how unsustainable our entire economic system is - the way we grow our food, build our buildings, dispose of our waste, transport ourselves from home to work, etc., etc. And I'd never really thought about the relationship between environmental degradation and failed states from a political perspective. My dad gave me this book a year ago, and I put off reading it because I figured it would be depressing and overly technical. I wish now I'd read it right away. It's an incredibly important book, really accessible and easy to read. Yes, it's depressing in many ways, but it offers creative and in many cases simple solutions to these major problems. I really think everybody should read this book.

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lester Brown has sparse way of writing just the 'meat' of what needs to be said. Although some of the material is repeated in more than one of the chapters, his account of the political, economic, and social aspects of our over-exploitation of resources is clear, concise, and understandable by anyone with a 10th-grade reading ability. He also has an excellent grasp of the biological and physical sciences and explains what's going on in a way that anyone with a high school education can understand. This is not to say that his book is based on high school science. Brown's understanding of the fundamental challenges we face is second to none. I am sure that the solutions he poses in the second half of the book will pull no punches. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a clear look at where we are and what it will take to get us out of trouble.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent summary of key ecological issues facing human civilisation, and a clear global plan on how to deal with them: 1. Eradicate poverty & Stablise population; 2. Restore the earth; 3. Feed people well (enough & with less ecological impact); 4. Design cities better; 5. Raise energy efficiency; 6. Turn to renewable energy. Provides estimated costings for 1-3, but unfortunately not for 4-6, which is a shame, because even though much can be done via the proposed 'tax-shift' change from income to eco-taxes, implementing the suggested technological changes will have a real economic cost, and it's exactly this kind of un-costed 'loophole' that allows those who want to continue to prioritise growth to fear-monger about how much it will cost to do what clearly has to be done.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are interested in environmental sustainability, then you may enjoy this book. I would, however, suggest that you skip or skim the first six chapters, which spend a couple hundred pages establishing that there is a problem. If you are interested in the book at all, it's probably safe to assume that you accept the reality of the problem.

Aside from a few logical problems (suggesting a diet level that will sustain a global population of 5 billion people shortly after suggesting stabilizing global population at 8 billion, for example) the book is mostly sound, it just isn't my cup-of-tea.

[Horus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brutally honest book that doesn't and can't provide much of a feel good message, if that's what you're looking for. The are some positives, but as Mr. Brown indicates, there are only as many as we get off our collective behinds to make happen. I'm not sure if there's an even newer edition than this one, but I'm sure the actions of our Conservative gov't in Canada won't be making him feel all warm and fuzzy. The fighting in Syria and the Ukraine as well as the ebola epidemic would have come to him as no surprise whatsoever. Unfortunately, as always, I doubt this would be a book the skeptics would read.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with actionable suggestions for moving to renewable energy immediately. Unfortunately, I don't think governments or businesses will move at a fast enough pace to nip our environmental troubles in the bud (they're not backed up enough against a wall), but it's not for lack of intelligent options presented.

Lester Brown is a leading mind and voice in renewables and the environment. Constantly updated by Brown and his Earth Policy Institute, I think version 4.0 is on shelves now.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this sometime last year and all I can say is wow. Brown does his research, and if you think that Global Warming is our only problem, or you think that its not even a problem, you should probably should take a look at this. Brown breaks down the crisis in fresh water, agriculture, fossil fuels, and more I can't remember.

The book is available in PDF form at their website.

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

Though I read version 3.0 I believe version 4.0 is out now, they keep updating the book as the research and current state of the world change.

[Amy Mair]

I had to return it to the library before I could finish, which was probably a good thing because this book is heartbreaking and terrifying. Or maybe leaving it unfinished prevented me from reading the parts that spoke about the hope for the future. Climate change deniers are the modern equivalent of the flat earth model or those who accused Galileo of heresy for pointing to heliocentrism. Wake up. Pretending it isn't happening won't help your children when their food supply collapses, the aquifers empty and the desert encroaches.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The tragic irony of this moment is that the rich countries are so rich and the poor countries are so poor that a few added tenths of one percent of GNP from the rich ones ramped up over the coming decades could do what was never before possible in human history: ensure that the basic needs of health and educations are met for impoverished children in this world." Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University Earth Institute

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a straight-forward book that details the problems civilization is facing (climate, energy, population, failed states, AIDS, etc.) and just how much money it would take to adequately address those problems. The answer lies somewhere in the range of what we just spent to bail out the greedy, the thieving, the arrogant and the ignorant. Oh well. There's nothing more interesting than watching a culture thrash around with no sense of priorities...

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a great point about Global Warming and how our world is changing. I liked the fact that I learned so much more than i thought I knew and I saw a different point of view about our climate. This book was easy to follow because the author used graphs and pictures to show numbers and it really made an impact. I would recommend this book to whom ever wants to learn more about Our World and Global Warming!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not enough to just recognize that global warming is likely to annihilate the human species, possibly as early as 2030. That just causes cynicism. This book focuses more on the solution than the bleak outlook. By reading and studying this book, young people can be part of the solution. All of us, young and old, must pick up our tools and get to work.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very good book that outlines the inter-connectedness of what impacts our environment with what is impacted by humans.

The one critique is that his text on development is a bit outside of his expertise and it shows.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

About how we can help with global warming. So far very good.
A really a must read for everyone who eats, uses electricity.
Yes, everybody. Tells what we need to do, why and how if we can just get our collective act together.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Far a great take on the environmental crisis and how economics play such a key role in solving our current problems. It's available on line so you can download it for free from Earth watch institute.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply put, this is one of the greatest and most thorough explications of worldwide environmental and social policy change you will probably ever find. It creates a vision of a healthier world and the policies and costs in creating it. Truly inspirational.

[eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

visionary. and interesting.
and will make you want to get your butt in gear.
but a bit too much of a laundry list to make it really good reading.
it may not really be meant for cover-to-cover reading... which is what i did. hence the not-so-high score.