Books: Plan B 4.0 by Lester Brown

      If you want to save the world and don't know where to start, I recommend "Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing To Save Civilization". Written by Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, "Plan B" is an unswerving examination of the state our of our global society, our harmful activities to the world that sustains us, the ramifications of those actions and what we can do to provide ourselves and our descendants with a better, cleaner future. It's straight forward assessment of where we are as a global society and where we are headed paints a stark and frightening picture of our possible future. But it also gives us the blueprint for addressing the issues we face before its too late.

    "Plan B" outlines...

 the challenges we as a society face, identifies the goals we should strive to achieve and how to achieve them as we face off against a growing global crisis. Brown focuses on not only the volatile climate changes we are seeing, but also discusses water shortages, diminishing crop yields, escalating civil unrest and the continuing violence to control energy supplies (namely fossil fuels). As you have heard me say before, this is a complex issue and Brown is able to put it into terms and language that better explains and demonstrates how our actions have long lasting effects on the world around us.

     I read "Plan B" for a college class a few years ago and it changed how I looked at the world. Evaluating what we are doing to the natural world is difficult since it includes so many different areas: Climate Change, sea level rise, melting glacial ice, continued pollution of the air and the land we need to survive. All of this can be and has been lost in the global shuffle to buy new cellphones and flat screen TVs every year, replace our DVDs with Blu-ray discs or whatever the next big thing is, constantly creating more waste then we or the Earth can handle. It all can make your head spin.

     Many get believe that in order to clean up the planet, they must sacrifice their way of life, so they choose to ignore it; its too real, too enormous, and with the loss of creature comforts we have become to expect. We have become a society that puts more value on the material possessions we crave now instead of a cleaner and healthier environment that we need to sustain us later. We have transformed into a population of Veruca Salts, who "want the world, who want the whole world", and we want it now. We take what what we want, we make what we want and then we throw it away in order to buy the newest and shiniest thing so we can keep up with our neighbors and rivals. Not only is it unsustainable, but it is destroying the natural world.

     Its not just about warmer temperatures or rising seas; its about evolving as a species to reduce the negative impacts on our life-sustaining environment before our society crumbles. It is about being able to feed the people of this world, provide them clean drinking water and a stable environment in which to raise their children. As Brown points out, the past is littered with failed civilizations that collapsed under their own weight, who failed to adjust and evolve when needed, only to have their societies disintegrate suddenly and totally. We don't have to end up like the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Easter Island, or the Mayans. We have a choice and can change how we do things on this world in order to sustain civilization and preserve our society. Tackling this problem is intimidating when you don't know where to start. "Plan B" is a great place to begin. It helped put things into perspective for me, and I think it will do the same for you.

     Lester Brown is President of the Earth Policy Institute and the author of many books, including "Full Planet, Empty Plates", "World On the Edge", and "Outgrowing the Earth".