Plan B : Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

by Brown, Lester R.

• ISBN13: 9780393058598
• ISBN10: 039305859X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

Modern civilization is in trouble. We have created a bubble economy, one whose output is artificially inflated by overconsuming the earth's natural capital. Nowhere is the bubble economy more evident than in the food sector where the world grain harvest has been inflated by overpumping aquifers, a practice that virtually guarantees a future drop in production when aquifers are depleted. The wakeup call may come soon. In China, where water shortages are already shrinking the food supply, the grain harvest has fallen from 392 million tons in 1999 to 340 million tons in 2003. Within the next year or two as its grain reserves are depleted, China's 1.3 billion consumers will begin competing with U.S. consumers for U.S. grain. Given China's trade surplus with the United States of over $80 billion and strong buying power, this has the potential to drive up food prices worldwide. The resulting political instability in food-importing countries may convince us that business as usual -- Plan A -- is no longer a viable option.

Author Biography

Lester R. Brown, an award-winning environmental analyst, is founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Preface	p. xv
A Planet under Stress	p. 3
Ecological Bills Coming Due	p. 6
Farmers Facing Two New Challenges	p. 8
Ecological Meltdown in China	p. 11
Food: A National Security Issue	p. 14
The Case for Plan B	p. 18
A Civilization in Trouble
Emerging Water Shortages	p. 23
Falling Water Tables	p. 25
Rivers Running Dry	p. 33
Farmers Losing to Cities	p. 35
Scarcity Crossing National Borders	p. 38
A Food Bubble Economy	p. 39
Eroding Soils and Shrinking Cropland	p. 42
Soil Erosion: Wind and Water	p. 43
Advancing Deserts	p. 46
Crops and Cars Compete for Land	p. 49
The Land-Hungry Soybean	p. 51
Grainland Gains and Losses	p. 53
Spreading Land Hunger	p. 56
Rising Temperatures and Rising Seas	p. 59
The Temperature Record	p. 60
The Yield Effect	p. 62
Reservoirs in the Sky	p. 67
Melting Ice and Rising Seas	p. 69
More Destructive Storms	p. 75
Subsidizing Climate Change	p. 77
Our Socially Divided World	p. 80
Life Expectancy: A Seminal Indicator	p. 81
The Effects of the HIV Epidemic	p. 82
Poverty and Hunger	p. 86
Poverty and the Burden of Disease	p. 88
The High Cost of Illiteracy	p. 89
Plan A: Business as Usual	p. 93
Accelerating Environmental Decline	p. 95
Spreading Hunger, Growing Unrest	p. 98
Streams of Environmental Refugees	p. 100
Population Growth and Political Conflict	p. 103
Plan A: Overwhelmed by Problems	p. 108
The Response--Plan B
Raising Water Productivity	p. 113
Adopting Realistic Prices	p. 114
Raising Irrigation Water Productivity	p. 117
Rainwater Harvesting	p. 122
Raising Nonfarm Water Productivity	p. 125
A Global Full-Court Press	p. 129
Raising Land Productivity	p. 131
Rethinking Land Productivity	p. 133
Multiple Cropping	p. 135
Raising Protein Efficiency	p. 137
A Second Harvest	p. 141
Saving Soil and Cropland	p. 143
Restoring the Earth	p. 147
Cutting Carbon Emissions in Half	p. 151
Raising Energy Productivity	p. 153
Harnessing the Wind	p. 156
Converting Sunlight into Electricity	p. 162
Energy from the Earth	p. 165
Building the Hydrogen Economy	p. 167
Cutting Carbon Emissions	p. 171
Responding to the Social Challenge	p. 176
Stabilizing Population	p. 177
Universal Basic Education	p. 181
Curbing the HIV Epidemic	p. 184
Health for All	p. 187
School Lunches for the Poor	p. 190
Breaking Out	p. 193
The Only Option
Plan B: Rising to the Challenge	p. 199
Deflating the Bubble	p. 200
A Wartime Mobilization	p. 203
Creating an Honest Market	p. 206
Shifting Taxes	p. 210
Shifting Subsidies	p. 214
A Call to Greatness	p. 216
Notes	p. 223
Index	p. 273
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