Lester Brown: Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

I watched  a PBS video called "Journey to Planet Earth:  Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization."  Framed as a "road trip" by Lester Brown, from DC to Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, and other major cities of the world, by the former head of the Worldwatch Institute.  The message:  Climate Change is coming and will lead to loss of water supplies from Himalayan and other mid-latitude glaciers, global food shortages, loss of biodiversity, and ultimately "failed states" around the world. In short, break down of Civilization.

Food supplies are  often implicated in civilizations' collapse (e.g., Sumerians, Great Zimbabwe, and Mayans).

Why didn't the leaders  make the connections? He wonders if food shortages could bring down our civilization?  Already, India and China are turning toward meat and cars, etc. And ethanol for vehicles (one fourth of the US corn crop goes to ethanol--which is very very wasteful).

 The number of "failing states" is rising.  Haiti--deforestation and soil erosion.  Haiti must develop the strengths to deal with its environmental problems.

The film features quotes from Thomas Friedman , Paul Krugman, Bruce Babbitt, Thomas Lovejoy and other luminaries.

TBrown's Bottom line:  We need to cut CO2 and other GHGs  80% by 2020! The recent UN agreement has an implied  deadline of 2050.  We must turn entirely to renewable sources (wind, solar, and huge amounts of geothermal. [GEOTHERMAL!!]) are the key.  Nuclear is too expensive [?].  We also need to put a tax on carbon.

He notes with approval the rise of anticoal protests, which have resulted in a "moratorium on coal." These protests seem to have petered out.  My utility has just announced a brand-new coal-fired plant.  The power grid is half coal already.

So it is going to be costly. We will need to look out for our grain supplies and markets, owing to China's spending power .

This, he says, would require putting the economy on a war footing, as Roosevelt did in WWII.  He quotes Roosevelt, telling car manufacturers that the must turn to tanks and aircraft and other war material. He notes with relish that you could get arrested for driving a private car. 

It would also require four things:  

•  Cut GHGs  80% by 2020
• Stabilize  Population at no more than 8 billion
• Eradicate poverty through the and family planning magic and micro-credit and female education (as in Bangladesh and Istanbul;
• Restore the natural resources on which we depend