Rating: 
Summary: Good science is not discredited by bad science
Review: An important contribution to the environmental debate. I was suprised by the critical review below that gives 1 star to Plan B and cites "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg as a refutation of Brown's work. Readers of that review may not be aware that "Skeptical" has been discredited, refuted and rejected by the scientific community. Critical reviews of Lomborg's book can be found in leading science journals, including Nature, Scientific American and Science. The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty issued a decision that declared Lomborg's research "to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty," and to be "clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice." (Lomborg is Danish). Readers will not be persuaded by references to junk science coming from an anti-environmentalist.
Rating:
Summary: Good science is not discredited by bad science
Review: An important contribution to the environmental debate. I was suprised by the critical review below that gives 1 star to Plan B and cites "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg as a refutation of Brown's work. Readers of that review may not be aware that "Skeptical" has been discredited, refuted and rejected by the scientific community. Critical reviews of Lomborg's book can be found in leading science journals, including Nature, Scientific American and Science. The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty issued a decision that declared Lomborg's research "to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty," and to be "clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice." (Lomborg is Danish). Readers will not be persuaded by references to junk science coming from an anti-environmentalist.
Rating:
Summary: Buy 10 copies and give them out.
Review: Clearly gives readers a broad grasp of the major problems humanity faces AND rational solutions. A must read for everyone, especially the U.S. president and the U.S. Legislature. Its great for anyone who is concerned about the near future of of Earth and is feeling hopeless. This book gave me some hope. The language is clear, the sources are well documented, and the path of solutions offered is logical and possible.
Rating:
Summary: A plan to salvage our global economy
Review: Do you think that our misuse of global resources has made it impossible to avoid a huge global economic and societal collapse in the near future? The author of this book doesn't think so. He says that although we're headed in the wrong direction right now, there are some actions we can actually take to turn things around.
Most of us understand the concept of an economic plan. A family that spends plenty of money has a successful plan if it consistently makes more money than it spends. It also has a successful plan if it consistently spends more money than it makes, if it has so much capital that it will last for a very long time. In all this, the family has to measure the true costs and risks involved in its economic decisions, but that is the gist of it.
If a family spends more than it makes and runs out of money, it can go bankrupt. And that can mean being unable to purchase necessities. It can mean being unable to purchase extremely inexpensive items that had not previously been a factor in one's budget. And it can mean not being able to spend money on items that will enable one to earn money (or to earn much more money).
All this means that we tend to learn about the prices of items and judge purchases accordingly.
Well, the same is true for a global economy. We can run out of resources. We can use them up faster than we are accumulating them. And one step we ought to take to prevent this is to measure the true cost of non-renewable resources and of items that do environmental damage that will be costly in the future.
Of course, questions of overconsumption become more dramatic as the planet's population goes up. In times of high population, we need to worry about the costs of fossil fuels, health care, education, computers, food, water, high-meat diets, yachts, jewelry, fine clothes, mansions, and the like not just in terms of the cost in paper money but in terms of effect on our resources and on the environment.
As the author points out, the quality of life is going to depend on the population, and we need to control our population to be able to manage a global economy. He proposes trying to improve education to help stabilize the Earth's population at about 7.5 billion. But can we maintain such a population without ruining the environment or running out of resources? If we can't, then human society will be in serious trouble.
Brown offers a note of hope. Although we'll be in trouble if we pursue a course of "business as usual," there is a Plan B that could work fairly well. It consists of stabilizing our population, as mentioned earlier. And it means raising water and land productivity, as the author explains in detail. Taking more advantage of drip irrigation alone would significantly increase water productivity. And we'll want to cut carbon emissions in half in the next ten years. We'll need to take this seriously, and put our planet on something like a war footing to do it. We'll need to restructure our tax system, and place a heavy tax burden on environmentally destructive activities (such as fossil fuel burning). We need to incorporate these ecological costs, and "get the market to send signals that reflect reality."
And Brown makes it clear that we need to do something soon. Our global population is already reaching a level that is difficult to maintain indefinitely. We're seeing the collapse of some fisheries, the melting of glaciers due to global warming, falling water tables, and food shortages in the most populous areas. Right now, for example, although the Chinese financial picture has been improving, water shortages have caused grain harvests to fall there.
If we do something to address the problems Brown discusses here, and do it soon, we may avoid a future in which most of us are poor and miserable.
Rating: 
Summary: Limitation is not the Answer for the Future!
Review: It seems that educated people would rather promote any unlimited energy source than reduce it! The Future REQUIRES energy, water, food, housing and mobility. It requires a little bit more thought than simply suggesting that we all can LIMIT ourselves for the sake of FEAR. Fact: there will be more people and Fact #2: They will not settle for the dark age! Therefore, we should all work together (I wish) and create an UNLIMITED energy source that will be the ONLY way to have a GOOD future. My thoughts are kinda towards using (the dreaded) nuclear fission energy to power every thing including the (required) hydrogen infrastructure. Of course, the spent radioactive fuel should be electromagnetly launched into a solar orbit close to the sun. (There would be plenty of energy to do that). If any was to burn up in the air, chances are, it would cause less harm to the environment (because of dispersion) than what we are already doing to it (with fossil fuel, greed, ect.)! And would cause even lesser harm than what we humans would do to it if we were to have to deal with limiting "cures"!
Rating:
Summary: A species out of control?
Review: Lester Brown recently wrote Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth in which his thesis was that "the environment was not part of the economy...but instead that the economy was part of the environment." (p. xv)Here he presents an upbeat and positive plan for saving the world from the consequences of what he calls the planet-wide "bubble economy." His central argument is that we are about to face a food shortage of crisis proportions as our aquifers and rivers run dry. The relative price of food, which is directly dependent upon ready water supplies from underground and through the diversion of rivers, he argues, is about to skyrocket as China and other grain-hungry nations begin to import grain. His plan B is a combination of interventions that would include environmental tax reform, that is, taxing products in terms or their true cost including pollution and the use of non-renewable resources. Thus the consequences of pollution-induced illnesses like asthma, etc. be factored into the cost of gasoline. In this way non-polluting energy sources such as windmills and solar energy cells would become cost-competitive with fossil fuels almost immediately. The first half of the book is devoted to describing the problem, which he calls "A Civilization in Trouble." The second half is devoted to his Plan B which includes adopting "honest global accounting," stabilizing the population, and raising land productivity. He wants not only to shift taxes from the environmentally sound ways of doing business to the ecologically harmful ways, but to shift the subsidizes that many countries now give to fossil fuel producers and to fishing and logging industries to environmentally safe products and industries. He points out that it is foolhardy to subsidize the destruction of our environment as we are now doing. Brown quotes Oystein Dahle, former Vice President of Exxon for Norway as saying: "Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth." (p. 210) A striking example of what Brown means by shifting taxes comes from former Harvard Economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw, who wrote: "Cutting income taxes while increasing gasoline taxes would lead to more rapid economic growth, less traffic congestion, safer roads, and reduced risk of global warming..." (p 214) Incidentally, Brown asserts that rising temperatures adversely affect crop yields. He notes that crops are grown in many countries "at or near their thermal optimum, making them vulnerable to any rise in temperature." He cites a study by Mohan Wali at Ohio State University showing that photosynthesis increases until the temperature reaches 68 degrees F. and then plateaus until it hits 95 degrees whereupon it begin to decline, and ceases at 104 degrees. (pp. 62-63) The problem with his solution is that, as Brown points out, the body politic, especially that of the United States, must take action to implement the changes. Unfortunately, President Bush, who represents corporate interests (as most American politicians do), will continue to call for more studies, and nothing will be done. More particularly, taxing destructive practices will only work if all (or at least a substantial majority) of the countries of the world cooperate. Polluted air, acid rain, depleted aquifers, and rivers run dry cross borders. Consequently we have a daunting task in front of us. A crucial psychological problem is that our instincts were honed in the pre-history when the resources of forest and savanna were effectively inexhaustible, where it didn't matter how much we burned and polluted since we could just move on. Our numbers were so small relative to the land that it would renew itself as we were despoiling other lands. With six billion-plus people on the planet there are no "other lands" and there is no time for the land to renew itself. We can no longer toss our waste over our shoulders, defecate in the stream, and slash and burn. This is just one respect in which we have to ask, are human beings as presently evolved able to cope with the modern world? The tribal mentality, with its violence toward outsiders and toward the environment, is still with us, but the tolerance of the environment for such behavior is not. The myth of the noble savage and indigenous people living in harmony with nature needs a reality check. We are savages in headsets, neither noble nor ignoble. We are indigenous people whose lands have gone the way of the Garden of Eden. We are clumsily and incompletely adjusting to a different landscape: the modern world. The race is on. Which will come first: our adjustment to the needs of the planet or the collapse of our great civilizations? Note well it is the needs of the planet that come first. Note also that the collapse of our civilizations will usher in a period of immense pain and suffering, even for those of us sitting atop Mount Olympus, as it were, in our garden homes sheltered from the storms in our inner cities and in Bangladesh and Pakistan. A great deal of human suffering can be averted by anticipating the consequences of globalization, of diminishing resources resulting in diminishing returns. But it is also true that a great deal of human suffering can be averted by not doing something stupid that may have unintended consequences. We must use our abilities and our knowledge to choose between the two. Lester Brown is trying to help us do that. This book is a fine introduction to the problem and to a possible solution.
Rating:
Summary: A species out of control?
Review: Lester Brown recently wrote Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth in which his thesis was that "the environment was not part of the economy...but instead that the economy was part of the environment." (p. xv) Here he presents an upbeat and positive plan for saving the world from the consequences of what he calls the planet-wide "bubble economy." His central argument is that we are about to face a food shortage of crisis proportions as our aquifers and rivers run dry. The relative price of food, which is directly dependent upon ready water supplies from underground and through the diversion of rivers, he argues, is about to skyrocket as China and other grain-hungry nations begin to import grain. His plan B is a combination of interventions that would include environmental tax reform, that is, taxing products in terms or their true cost including pollution and the use of non-renewable resources. Thus the consequences of pollution-induced illnesses like asthma, etc. be factored into the cost of gasoline. In this way non-polluting energy sources such as windmills and solar energy cells would become cost-competitive with fossil fuels almost immediately. The first half of the book is devoted to describing the problem, which he calls "A Civilization in Trouble." The second half is devoted to his Plan B which includes adopting "honest global accounting," stabilizing the population, and raising land productivity. He wants not only to shift taxes from the environmentally sound ways of doing business to the ecologically harmful ways, but to shift the subsidizes that many countries now give to fossil fuel producers and to fishing and logging industries to environmentally safe products and industries. He points out that it is foolhardy to subsidize the destruction of our environment as we are now doing. Brown quotes Oystein Dahle, former Vice President of Exxon for Norway as saying: "Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth." (p. 210) A striking example of what Brown means by shifting taxes comes from former Harvard Economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw, who wrote: "Cutting income taxes while increasing gasoline taxes would lead to more rapid economic growth, less traffic congestion, safer roads, and reduced risk of global warming..." (p 214) Incidentally, Brown asserts that rising temperatures adversely affect crop yields. He notes that crops are grown in many countries "at or near their thermal optimum, making them vulnerable to any rise in temperature." He cites a study by Mohan Wali at Ohio State University showing that photosynthesis increases until the temperature reaches 68 degrees F. and then plateaus until it hits 95 degrees whereupon it begin to decline, and ceases at 104 degrees. (pp. 62-63) The problem with his solution is that, as Brown points out, the body politic, especially that of the United States, must take action to implement the changes. Unfortunately, President Bush, who represents corporate interests (as most American politicians do), will continue to call for more studies, and nothing will be done. More particularly, taxing destructive practices will only work if all (or at least a substantial majority) of the countries of the world cooperate. Polluted air, acid rain, depleted aquifers, and rivers run dry cross borders. Consequently we have a daunting task in front of us. A crucial psychological problem is that our instincts were honed in the pre-history when the resources of forest and savanna were effectively inexhaustible, where it didn't matter how much we burned and polluted since we could just move on. Our numbers were so small relative to the land that it would renew itself as we were despoiling other lands. With six billion-plus people on the planet there are no "other lands" and there is no time for the land to renew itself. We can no longer toss our waste over our shoulders, defecate in the stream, and slash and burn. This is just one respect in which we have to ask, are human beings as presently evolved able to cope with the modern world? The tribal mentality, with its violence toward outsiders and toward the environment, is still with us, but the tolerance of the environment for such behavior is not. The myth of the noble savage and indigenous people living in harmony with nature needs a reality check. We are savages in headsets, neither noble nor ignoble. We are indigenous people whose lands have gone the way of the Garden of Eden. We are clumsily and incompletely adjusting to a different landscape: the modern world. The race is on. Which will come first: our adjustment to the needs of the planet or the collapse of our great civilizations? Note well it is the needs of the planet that come first. Note also that the collapse of our civilizations will usher in a period of immense pain and suffering, even for those of us sitting atop Mount Olympus, as it were, in our garden homes sheltered from the storms in our inner cities and in Bangladesh and Pakistan. A great deal of human suffering can be averted by anticipating the consequences of globalization, of diminishing resources resulting in diminishing returns. But it is also true that a great deal of human suffering can be averted by not doing something stupid that may have unintended consequences. We must use our abilities and our knowledge to choose between the two. Lester Brown is trying to help us do that. This book is a fine introduction to the problem and to a possible solution.
Rating: 
Summary: Rescuing a planet from nonsense
Review: Lester R. Brown is a well known and totally discredited doomsayer and environmental crackpot. His analyses and prophecies (consistently proven wrong) are based on crude number doctoring and misunderstanding of basic biology, economics and statistics. And while one might argue that debating his views is a waste of time, he and his likes have a loud and fairly influential following. For a more balanced and sane description of the state of the world, read for example the books by Julian Simon, and Bjorn Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist".
Rating:
Summary: Buy 10 copies and give them out.
Review: Pass the words of this man to as many readers and talkers as you can. This book is clearly written and easy to read. This is an emergency situation that we are living in now. At least as far as the California San Joaquin River Valley, is concerned, Lester Brown's water observations are absolutely correct. During the Depression a farmer with a shovel could hit the water table in a couple of minutes. Now deep wells are not hitting water. In Fresno the Federal government's recharging of water has resulted in chlorinated water and the developer's buying their way into more suburbs towards the eastern Sierras. In the 1980's overwating farms in the Kesterston Wildlife Refuge started killing birds and fish. Chemical analyses of tissues from both birds and fish indicated toxic levels of selenium. The flow of Hispanic and Hmong constituency immigrants constantly impacts water and air quality. We in central California are much like Brown's depiction of the millions of immigrants in the current dust bowl and water decline in China, not to mention the current water table decline in the U.S. midwest. Much like they were in the early twentieth century, many Chinese and Indians will be hungry soon. Was the late 20th century mankind's only Golden Age? When grains like rice, wheat, and soy fail to germinate due to high atmospheric temperatures, then we are in real trouble. As their water tables have been falling since 1999, watch the Chinese compete with Americans for U.S. and Canadian grains in the next couple of years. Relatedly, watch the price of meat skyrocket as grains to feed those animals skyrocket in price. Only when the people in power recognize a world-wide emergency need to limit population growth and convert from a petroleum to hydrogen based economy, will we have any ability to continue our "Golden Age" of wealth and consumerism. But the power brokers can't see the need for radical change. As we have reproduced to the billions beyond the earth's ability to provide food, shelter, and energy, we may see the chaos and diversionary military solutions to non-military problems: over-population and petroleum energy consumpition. First, recognize the problems as solvable. Then mobilize all appropriate government and market forces to respond, as Iran has done with contraception. I see the population explosion as the primary cause of all of our health and social problems worldwide and population reduction as the solution to those problems. Three cheers to Lester Brown for writing this book. He is a visionary. But how do we get the people in charge to understand the message sooner rather than after chaos and anarchy become the law of the land? I only wish I were exagerating. Pass the words of Lester Brown to as many readers and talkers as you can. This book is clearly written and easy to read. This is an emergency situation that we are living in now. As a result of reading this book, I have joined Earth Policy Institute and Population Connection on the World Wide Web.
Rating:
Summary: Is the Golden Age of Mankind over? Yes, if we don't act now
Review: Pass the words of this man to as many readers and talkers as you can. This book is clearly written and easy to read. This is an emergency situation that we are living in now. At least as far as the California San Joaquin River Valley, is concerned, Lester Brown's water observations are absolutely correct. During the Depression a farmer with a shovel could hit the water table in a couple of minutes. Now deep wells are not hitting water. In Fresno the Federal government's recharging of water has resulted in chlorinated water and the developer's buying their way into more suburbs towards the eastern Sierras. In the 1980's overwating farms in the Kesterston Wildlife Refuge started killing birds and fish. Chemical analyses of tissues from both birds and fish indicated toxic levels of selenium. The flow of Hispanic and Hmong constituency immigrants constantly impacts water and air quality. We in central California are much like Brown's depiction of the millions of immigrants in the current dust bowl and water decline in China, not to mention the current water table decline in the U.S. midwest. Much like they were in the early twentieth century, many Chinese and Indians will be hungry soon. Was the late 20th century mankind's only Golden Age? When grains like rice, wheat, and soy fail to germinate due to high atmospheric temperatures, then we are in real trouble. As their water tables have been falling since 1999, watch the Chinese compete with Americans for U.S. and Canadian grains in the next couple of years. Relatedly, watch the price of meat skyrocket as grains to feed those animals skyrocket in price. Only when the people in power recognize a world-wide emergency need to limit population growth and convert from a petroleum to hydrogen based economy, will we have any ability to continue our "Golden Age" of wealth and consumerism. But the power brokers can't see the need for radical change. As we have reproduced to the billions beyond the earth's ability to provide food, shelter, and energy, we may see the chaos and diversionary military solutions to non-military problems: over-population and petroleum energy consumpition. First, recognize the problems as solvable. Then mobilize all appropriate government and market forces to respond, as Iran has done with contraception. I see the population explosion as the primary cause of all of our health and social problems worldwide and population reduction as the solution to those problems. Three cheers to Lester Brown for writing this book. He is a visionary. But how do we get the people in charge to understand the message sooner rather than after chaos and anarchy become the law of the land? I only wish I were exagerating. Pass the words of Lester Brown to as many readers and talkers as you can. This book is clearly written and easy to read. This is an emergency situation that we are living in now. As a result of reading this book, I have joined Earth Policy Institute and Population Connection on the World Wide Web.
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