Lester R. Brown

In this urgent time, World on the Edge calls out the pivotal environmental issues and how to solve them now. 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.

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

Yerkürenin En Güzel Tarihi

L’agricoltura globale si trova di fronte a sfide del tutto nuove. Le falde idriche calano, le rese cerealicole hanno raggiunto il loro limite, le temperature globali aumentano e l’erosione dei suoli continua ad aggravarsi. Nutrire la popolazione mondiale, che cresce ogni anno di 80 milioni di individui, diventa sempre più difficile. E allora le nazioni che possono permetterselo corrono all’estero ad accaparrarsi terre coltivabili e annesse risorse idriche. Il land grabbing rappresenta un fenomeno nuovo all’interno della geopolitica della scarsità alimentare, in cui il cibo ha assunto la stessa importanza del petrolio e il terreno agricolo è prezioso come l’oro. Le ricadute in termini di prezzi mondiali del cibo sono sotto gli occhi di tutti. Cosa accadrà con il prossimo aumento dei prezzi? Se la contrazione dei consumi alimentari, spinta dalla crisi, è una novità per molti di noi, per molti altri non sono più possibili ulteriori sacrifici. Il cibo è l’anello debole della nostra società e rischia quindi di diventare un importante fattore di instabilità politica. - See more at: http://www.edizioniambiente.it/ebook/810/9-miliardidi-posti-a-tavola/

La nuova geopolitica della scarsità di cibo

9 miliardi di posti a tavola

In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus challenged the view that the sun revolved around the earth, arguing instead that the earth revolved around the sun. His paper led to a revolution in thinking. In Lester Brown's brilliant and invigorating account of the industrial economy, he shows how a rethink of its fossil fuel-based, throwaway ethos is necessary to ensure that it works with, not against, the natural environment. The issue now is whether the environment is part of the economy or the economy is part of the environment. Brown argues the latter, pointing out that treating the environment as part of the economy has produced an economy that is destroying its natural support systems. One of the foremost experts on the new economic opportunities, Brown shows the vast economic potential and environmental gains that exist from eliminating the waste and destruction of current consumption. He describes how the global economy can be restructured to make it compatible with the earth's ecosystem so that economic progress can continue, with high standards of living and secure employment for all, while conserving resources and restoring the environment. In the new economy, wind farms replace coal mines, hydrogen-powered fuel cells replace internal combustion engines, and cities are designed for people, not cars. Eco-Economy is a map of how to get from here to there. It is an essential guide to the economy of the 21st century and will be compelling reading for business readers and environmentalists alike looking for ways to build a better future.

Building an Economy for the Earth

Eco-Economy

The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As oil insecurity deepens, the extraction risks of fossil fuels rise, and concerns about climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old economy, fueled by oil, natural gas, and coal is being replaced with one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The Great Transition details the accelerating pace of this global energy revolution. As many countries become less enamored with coal and nuclear power, they are embracing an array of clean, renewable energies. Whereas solar energy projects were once small-scale, largely designed for residential use, energy investors are now building utility-scale solar projects. Strides are being made: some of the huge wind farm complexes under construction in China will each produce as much electricity as several nuclear power plants, and an electrified transport system supplemented by the use of bicycles could reshape the way we think about mobility.

The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy

Michael Renner

Brian Halweil

This ninth annual edition of Vital Signs takes the world's pulse by compiling a wide-ranging collection of trends that identify both problems and progress in the quest for a sustainable society. It highlights both alarming situations and encouraging developments. Part One is a comprehensive presentation of the key indicators in areas such as food, agriculture, energy, atmosphere, economics, transport and the military. Part Two provides in-depth special feature articles on: environmental features, such as transgenic crops and paper recycling; economic features, such as environmental taxes and corporate mergers; and social features, such as tuberculosis, prisons and women in politics.

The Environmental Trends That Are Shaping Our Future

Vital Signs 2000-2001

Historically, food security was the responsibility of ministries of agriculture but today that has changed: decisions made in ministries of energy may instead have the greatest effect on the food situation. Recent research reporting that a one degree Celsius rise in temperature can reduce grain yields by 10 per cent means that energy policy is now directly affecting crop production. Agriculture is a water-intensive activity and, while public attention has focused on oil depletion, it is aquifer depletion that poses the more serious threat. There are substitutes for oil, but none for water and the link between our fossil fuel addiction, climate change and food security is now clear. While population growth has slowed over the past three decades, we are still adding 76 million people per year. In a world where the historical rise in land productivity has slowed by half since 1990, eradicating hunger may depend as much on family planners as on farmers. The bottom line is that future food security depends not only on efforts within agriculture but also on energy policies that stabilize climate, a worldwide effort to raise water productivity, the evolution of land-efficient transport systems, and population policies that seek a humane balance between population and food. Outgrowing the Earth advances our thinking on food security issues that the world will be wrestling with for years to come.

The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures

Outgrowing the Earth

Descubra la nueva versión del Plan B En su nueva obra, Lester Brown analiza el problema de la crisis de los alimentos y como esta puede ser el argumento central para convencer al mundo sobre la necesidad de reducir las emisiones de CO2 en un 80% para el año 2020. Las consecuencias ambientales derivadas de la deforestación y la escasez de agua, afectan en forma signicativa la producción y el suministro de alimentos. En esta edición completamente revisada, Brown se centra en los detalles del plan que él propone y en analizar la forma como ya está surgiendo una nueva economía energética. Un ensayo que se debe leer para comprender los desafíos de nuestro siglo y cómo solucionarlos CRÍTICAS “Lester Brown nos dice como construir un mundo más justo y cómo salvar el planeta del cambio climático de una manera práctica y futurista. Todos debemos seguir su consejo” - Bill Clinton, ex presidente de Estados Unidos de América SOBRE EL AUTOR Lester R. Brown - The Earth Policy Institute Presidente del Earth Policy Institute (Washington D.C ), organización sin ánimo de lucro dedicada a la investigación interdisciplinaria, cuyo propósito es proveer una visión de una economía ambientalmente sostenible y un proyecto de cómo llegar a ella. Brown ha sido descrito como “uno de los pensadores mundiales más influyentes” por el Washington post y el Telegraphe de Calcuta lo llamó “El gurú del movimiento ambiental”. En 1986, la Biblioteca del Congreso de los Estados Unidos solicitó sus escritos para sus archivos. Hace 30 años Brown ayudó a desarrollar el concepto de Desarrollo Ambientalmente Sostenible, el cual ha utilizado en el diseño de su eco-economía. Fue el fundador del World Watch Institute y su presidente durante sus primeros veintiséis años. Ha sido autor y coautor de muchos libros y reconocido con más de veinte títulos honorarios. Sus libros han sido traducidos a más de cuarenta idiomas. Es miembro de la Fundación Mc Arthur, ha recibido notables premios y reconocimientos, incluyendo el Premio al Medio Ambiente de las Naciones Unidas en 1987, la Medalla Dorada del World Wide Fond for Nature en 1989 y el Premio Planeta Azul de Jápon en 1994, por su “excepcional contribución para resolver los problemas ambientales globales”. En 1995 Marquis Who’s Who, el más preeminente editor biográfico del mundo, con ocasión de su cincuentava edición, lo nombró como uno de los ciencuenta grandes americanos. Más recientemente le fue otorgada la Medalla Presidencial de Italia y el Premio Borgstrom por la Academia Real Sueca de Agricultura y Bosques y fue nombrado profesor honorario de la Academia China de Ciencias. SOBRE CEID El Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Sostenible CEID Colombia fue creado en agosto de 2003 por un grupo de expertos profesionales, con el propósito de investigar, divulgar el conocimiento y apoyar los procesos de construcción de capacidad en temas relacionados con medio ambiente y desarrollo sostenible, contribuyendo así al logro de un mayor y mejor desarrollo económico con respeto al medio ambiente. Igualmente provee consultoría y asesoría sobre esos temas. CEID cuenta con la amplia experiencia de sus miembros, quienes por largos años han manejado temas directamente relacionados con sus objetivos, tanto desde el sector público como el privado y la academia. Desde su fundación CEID ha participado regularmente en foros internacionales y nacionales, especialmente en las reuniones de Naciones Unidas del Consejo Económico y Social (ECOSOC) y la Convención Marco de Cambio Climático (UNFCCC).

Ensayo económico y social

Plan B 4.0 Movilizarse para salvar la civilizacion

Gary Gardner

On the bicentennial of Malthus' legendary essay on the tendency of population to grow more rapidly than the food supply, this book examines the impacts of population growth on 19 global resources and services, including food, fresh water, fisheries, jobs, education, income and health. Despite current hype of a 'birth dearth' in parts of Europe and Japan, the fact remains that human numbers are projected to increase by over 3 billion by 2050. Populations in rapidly growing nations are in danger of outstripping the carrying capacity of their natural support systems and governments in such situations will find it increasingly hard to respond to crises such as AIDS, food and water shortages and mass unemployment. Beyond Malthus examines methods such as the expansion of international family planning, investment in educating young people in the developing world and promotion of a shift towards smaller families which will represent the most humane response to the possible ravages of the population explosion.

The Nineteen Dimensions of the Population Challenge

Beyond Malthus

State of the World

Citing new understandings about fossil fuels as well as an emergence of what the author terms an "energy economy" of renewable technologies, a revised report explores how daily life is likely to be affected by a dramatic shift in investment practices toward sustainable energy sources. Simultaneous.

Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Substantially Revised)

With food supplies tightening, countries are competing for the land and water resources needed to feed their people. With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. “In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage. Food is the new oil,” Lester R. Brown writes. What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism? Brown outlines the political implications of land acquisitions by grain-importing countries in Africa and elsewhere as well as the world’s shrinking buffers against poor harvests. With wisdom accumulated over decades of tracking agricultural issues, Brown exposes the increasingly volatile food situation the world is facing.

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

The author discusses the geopolitics of food security in the face of scarcity caused by falling water tables, soil erosion and global warming and supports his position that “food is the new oil” through an examination of decades of agricultural issues. Simultaneous.

Over the past few years Lester R. Brown has written several bestselling works that have made us aware of the need for sustainable development. This latest work shows that we have created a bubble economy, one whose output is artificially inflated by overconsuming the earth's natural capital. The present course, Plan A, will lead to continuing environmental deterioration and eventual economic decline. 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 Nation's low projection of 7.4 billion, to reduce carbon emissions by half by 2015, and to raise water productivity by half. Lester Brown puts forward a workable blueprint that can be enacted now.

Plan B: Rescuing A Planet Under Stress And A Civilization In Trouble

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

“[Brown’s] ability to make a complicated subject accessible to the general reader is remarkable.”—Katherine Salant, Washington Post As fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we have begun investing in energy sources that can last forever. Plan B 4.0 explores both the nature of this transition to a new energy economy and how it will affect our daily lives.

Lester R. Brown

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