Author: Lester R Brown
Publisher: Orient Longman
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 286
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8125026916
Description
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.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
A Planet Under Stress
A CIVILIZATION IN TROUBLE
Emerging Water Shortages
Eroding Soils and Shrinking Cropland
Rising Temperatures and Rising Seas
Our Socially Divided World
Plan A - Business as Usual
THE RESPONSE - PLAN B
Raising Water Productivity
Raising Land Productivity
Cutting Carbon Emissions in Half
Responding to the Social Challenge
THE ONLY OPTION
Plan B - Rising to the Challenge
Notes
Index