Lester Brown, Guest Writer
Lester R. Brown is president of Earth Policy Institute, an organization dedicated to building a sustainable future. Described by the Washington Post as "one of the world's most influential thinkers," Brown started his career as a tomato farmer. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science, he spent six months living in rural India, where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. Brown later became head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's International Agricultural Development Service. In 1974 he founded the Worldwatch Institute, leaving in 2001 to found the Earth Policy Institute. He has authored or co-authored over 50 books, the most recent of which is World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, and has received 24 honorary degrees and numerous awards, including the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, a MacArthur Foundation "genius award," and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Latest Stories from Lester Brown, Guest Writer - Page 7
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U.S. Car Fleet Shrinks by Four Million in 2009
America's century-old love affair with the automobile
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Ice Is Melting Faster Everywhere
Click for a larger image of map. This Eco-Economy Indicator is a guest post written by my colleague Alexandra Giese, a staff researcher at the Earth Policy Institute. From the Arctic sea ice to the Antarctic interior and the mountainous peaks of Peru,
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The Localization of Agriculture: A Predetermined Future
In the United States, there has been a surge of interest in eating fresh local foods, corresponding with mounting concerns about the climate effects of consuming food from distant
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Three Models of Social Change
With COP15 soon to begin, I have been wondering whether we can change fast enough to implement the solutions that will save civilization, as I've
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The Copenhagen Conference on Food Security
For the 193 national delegations gathering in Copenhagen for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December, the reasons for concern about climate change vary widely. For delegations
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The Climate Clock and Copenhagen
For those concerned about global warming, all eyes are on December's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The stakes could not be higher. Almost every new report shows that the climate is changing even faster
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The Brazilian Connection - Are You In?
Last week I was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, launching the Portuguese edition of Plan B 4.0, published by Virtu Editora e Productora Ltda.
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US Headed For Massive Decline In Carbon Emissions: 9 Percent Drop In Last Two Years
For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped
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Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
In my new book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, which we at Earth Policy Institute just launched today, I note that in early 2008, Saudi Arabia announced that, after being self-sufficient in
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Rethinking Food Production For A World Of Eight Billion
In April 2005, the World Food Programme and the Chinese government jointly announced that food aid shipments to China would stop at the end of the year. For a country
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Learning From Past Civilizations
At Earth Policy Institute, we've been looking to at earlier civilizations to understand our current environmental dilemma. We have found that our early twenty-first century civilization is not
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The Oil Intensity Of Food
Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new
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A Warming World Means More Destructive Storms
Elevated global temperatures bring a number of threats, including
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Melting Ice Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees
As the earth warms, the melting of the earth's two massive ice sheets—Antarctica and Greenland—could raise sea level enormously. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level 7
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"Plan B" - Efficiency and Conservation Measures Can Drop Energy Demand By 2020
Projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show global energy demand growing by close to 30 percent by 2020, setting the stage for massive growth in the
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Needed: Copernican Shift Toward A Global Eco-Economy
In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres," in which he challenged the view that the sun revolved around the earth, arguing instead that the earth revolved
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Protecting And Restoring Forests To Save Civilization
As I have written in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, protecting the earth's nearly 4 billion hectares of remaining forests and replanting those already lost are
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Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
In the May issue of Scientific American I discuss how food shortages could be the weak link that brings down civilization. For many years at Earth Policy
