Earth Policy Reader : Today's Decisions, Tomorrow's World

by Lester R. Brown, Janet Larsen, Bernie Fischlowitz-Roberts

In this study, the award-winning environmental analyst Lester Brown and his colleagues have charted progress in building the eco-economy - an economy in harmony with the Earth's ecosystems, not undermining them. This edition of the biennial reader highlights 12 key trends, from population growing by 80 million annually, to ice melting, to the boom in use of solar cells. It explains, for example, why wind-generated electricity is emerging as the foundation of the new post-fossil fuel energy economy. It also specifically investigates China's desertification problem, the issues surrounding food production, and the challenge of controlling climate change. Drawing on research and analysis by the Earth Policy Institute, the reader monitors the shift from the old economy to the new.

321 pages, ebook

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Lester Russel Brown is an American environmentalist, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. BBC Radio commentator Peter Day calls him "one of the great pioneer environmentalists."

In the mid-1970s, Brown helped pioneer the concept of sustainable development, during a career that started with farming. As early as 1978, in his book The Twenty-Ninth Day, he was already warning of "the various dangers arising out of our manhandling of nature...by overfishing the oceans, stripping the forests, turning land into desert." In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings “have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.”

He has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, including, the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his "contributions to solving global environmental problems."

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's a book for class.

first book of environment & agriculture i've read at american within development.

very, very good, scary and hopeful.

i mean that book is five years old, so data is 2002, and it will make you poop your pants

but the wind stuff & technology and how many have gone green power, and the potential

three states in the midwest have enough windpower for the entire US, including transportation

so damn, there you are, and then you go back to water scarcity

perhaps the single most immediate problem that could challenge existence

and we don't pay attention to it
because it happens in a water table

that's underground

internet no reach

hard to poop our pants for what we can't see

fit into a picture and soundbite

good read

i can't swap it yet
cuz i might need it later

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lester Brown is a hero.