A Review of World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse
by Lester Brown
Our summer in Berlin has been truly filled with the joys of urban living - except for the changeable weather! People tell us this has been the coolest, wettest summer they can recall. We still have had some lovely sunny days but more frequent cool and rainy times indicate that the weather is just not normal! Folks here are convinced this is not an aberration - it is climate change at work.
It was with these thoughts in mind, that I read Lester Brown’s latest book, World on the Edge, to understand what’s really happening with the planet. World on the Edge, the most recent release of the Plan B series of books, is assiduously well documented, and a reasoned account of the environmental trends that are undermining the world economy.
For those unfamiliar with Lester Brown, he is the founder of the Earth Policy Institute and before that he founded Worldwatch, the organization that has published State of the World each year. Brown and the Earth Policy Team developed Plan B, outlining a plan, a budget, and a timetable for rescuing our twenty-first century civilization.
The environmental trends he discusses are falling water tables, eroding soils and expanding deserts, rising temperatures, melting ice, shrinking harvests and food insecurity. These trends lead to a new politics of food scarcity, environmental refugees, mounting stresses and failing states. As Brown states in the Foreword, "Restructuring the economy in time to avoid decline will take a massive mobilization at wartime speed." This book provides a more urgent call to action and presents the latest version of Plan B supported by new data and research.
On the hopeful side, he reports that all over the world, investments are being made by private firms, national governments and international organizations to restore the global economy’s natural support systems through energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, reforestation, and irrigation efficiency. Investments are being made, too, in education, health care and family planning.
But it is not enough! This Plan B envisions an additional annual expenditure of $75 Billion to meet the social goals such as universal primary education and school lunch programs, adult literacy programs, reproductive health and family planning and universal basic health care worldwide. To meet the environmental restoration goals including stabilizing water tables, protecting biodiversity, planting trees, and restoring topsoil, range lands and fisheries, an additional annual investment of $110 Billion will be needed. The total investment of $185 Billion is the ‘new defense budget’ to address the most serious threats to national and global security. This investment is just 28% of the US military budget or 12% of the world military budget!
What is needed, then, is a fundamental restructuring in two cornerstone areas: taxation and security. Plan B envisions a total restructuring of taxation from income to carbon. Income taxes would be reduced while carbon emissions would be taxed to include the costs of climate change and pollution. As to security, a total rethink would take place. As Brown states, "The threats to our future now are not armed aggression but rather climate change, population growth, water shortages, poverty, rising food prices, and failing states."
Lester Brown has made a powerful, well documented case to foretell the grim and chaotic future our civilization faces. He has also advanced a way forward for all of us to save civilization. But this massive mobilization at wartime speed requires each of us to participate by taking action in some way. He has provided the plan and the information sources, the data and the rationale. Now it is our turn.
I urge you to read the book, to think about how you will participate in the transformation, and to act!
My offer:
If you have a book reader or laptop, you may download a pdf copy for free from Earth Policy Institute, http://www.earth-policy.org.
If you promise to read this book, let me know and I will send you a print copy.
After you have read the book, please share your reactions and your own personal Plan B with us at http://globalPW.blogspot.com
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A Letter from Cairo
Our good friend, Lora Lucero, is visiting Cairo this summer, hoping to obtain permission to go to Gaza. She sent this letter to us on August 6, 2011....
I really hope you visit Egypt --- but plan a cooler time of the year.
The Egyptians I talk with are naturally better-educated and speak English. They are urban, as opposed to rural, and they are generally younger than me --- 20-40s. They see Turkey as a good model. None have mentioned Germany as a model. But an Egyptian woman (middle class) living in Germany now said that she doesn't think Egyptians know how to build a democracy. "They must first learn to live democracy in their homes, before they can build a democracy in the country." She doesn't think Mubarak should have left.
Things are very fluid here. I think they could go in any direction based on what I read in the English-language newspaper, hear on the English-language TV and learn from English-speaking people.
The demonstrators in Tahrir Square are symbolic of the tensions in Cairo. The majority of them left Tahrir Square voluntarily out of respect for the month of Ramadan, with intentions of returning at the end of the month. A few die-hards remained and the army came in and forcibly removed them. Some of the shop owners near Tahrir Square are upset with the demonstrators because they feel they have disrupted business and tourism.
Last night there were 100-150 peaceful demonstrators standing behind a fixed barrier near Tahrir Square, not obstructing traffic or being unruly. About 500 army men dressed in full uniform, with helmets, batons and shields marched towards the demonstrators in a line as a show of force, and stopped in front of them. Without any warning or provocation, the army charged and began beating the demonstrators. The army warned a cameraman against taking pictures of this scene and confiscated another person's camera. It didn't appear that anyone was seriously hurt - no blood. But this raises some serious questions: Will the military be able to transition to a new form of government? Will there be freedom of the press in the new Egypt? Are demonstrators going to be seen as a constructive force for progress or a flashpoint for division and violence?
In Cairo, I met a 76-year-old woman from Spain who married an Egyptian many years ago. She speaks Spanish, Arabic, Italian, English and probably other languages as well. She now lives alone in her apartment directly over Tahrir Square and had a front-row seat to the mayhem and violence in January-February this year. She was so nervous about the events taking place in Cairo that she headed to Spain for a few weeks to avoid the craziness. Since her return, she has panic attacks and was so nervous with Mubarak's trial being televised that she asked me not to take a photo of the TV. : ( She wants stability to return to Egypt.
I don't think anyone can predict the future for Egypt. I certainly can't.
Lora
I really hope you visit Egypt --- but plan a cooler time of the year.
The Egyptians I talk with are naturally better-educated and speak English. They are urban, as opposed to rural, and they are generally younger than me --- 20-40s. They see Turkey as a good model. None have mentioned Germany as a model. But an Egyptian woman (middle class) living in Germany now said that she doesn't think Egyptians know how to build a democracy. "They must first learn to live democracy in their homes, before they can build a democracy in the country." She doesn't think Mubarak should have left.
Things are very fluid here. I think they could go in any direction based on what I read in the English-language newspaper, hear on the English-language TV and learn from English-speaking people.
The demonstrators in Tahrir Square are symbolic of the tensions in Cairo. The majority of them left Tahrir Square voluntarily out of respect for the month of Ramadan, with intentions of returning at the end of the month. A few die-hards remained and the army came in and forcibly removed them. Some of the shop owners near Tahrir Square are upset with the demonstrators because they feel they have disrupted business and tourism.
Last night there were 100-150 peaceful demonstrators standing behind a fixed barrier near Tahrir Square, not obstructing traffic or being unruly. About 500 army men dressed in full uniform, with helmets, batons and shields marched towards the demonstrators in a line as a show of force, and stopped in front of them. Without any warning or provocation, the army charged and began beating the demonstrators. The army warned a cameraman against taking pictures of this scene and confiscated another person's camera. It didn't appear that anyone was seriously hurt - no blood. But this raises some serious questions: Will the military be able to transition to a new form of government? Will there be freedom of the press in the new Egypt? Are demonstrators going to be seen as a constructive force for progress or a flashpoint for division and violence?
In Cairo, I met a 76-year-old woman from Spain who married an Egyptian many years ago. She speaks Spanish, Arabic, Italian, English and probably other languages as well. She now lives alone in her apartment directly over Tahrir Square and had a front-row seat to the mayhem and violence in January-February this year. She was so nervous about the events taking place in Cairo that she headed to Spain for a few weeks to avoid the craziness. Since her return, she has panic attacks and was so nervous with Mubarak's trial being televised that she asked me not to take a photo of the TV. : ( She wants stability to return to Egypt.
I don't think anyone can predict the future for Egypt. I certainly can't.
Lora
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