7. Lester Brown - Perspectives on Limits to Growth: World on the Edge
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- We are facing issues of near-overwhelming complexity and unprecedented urgency. Can we think systematically and fashion policies accordingly? Can we move fast enough to avoid
environmental decline and economic collapse? Can we change direction before we go over the edge? I will look at the economic future through and environmental lens to fashion a plan that
will sustain civilization. The plan has four components: a massive cut in global carbon emissions of 80 percent by 2020; the stabilization of world population at no more than 8 billion by 2040;
the eradication of poverty; and the restoration of forests, soils, aquifers, and fisheries.
Lester Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother during high school and college. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural
science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. Brown went on to earn masters
degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland and in public administration from Harvard University. In 1959 Brown joined the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service as an
international analyst, and in 1964 he became an adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on foreign agricultural policy. In 1966, he was appointed Administrator of the
department's International Agricultural Development Service. In early 1969, he left government to help establish the Overseas Development Council. In 1974, with support of the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, Lester Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. Brown has authored or coauthored 50
books and his works have appeared in some 40 languages. Among his earlier books are Man, Land and Food, World Without Borders, and Building a Sustainable Society. His 1995 book Who
Will Feed China? challenged the official view of China's food prospect, spawning hundreds of conferences and seminars. In May 2001, he founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision
and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. In November 2001, he published Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, and his most recent book is World
on the Edge. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including 25 honorary degrees, a MacArthur Fellowship, the 1987 United Nations' Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund
for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for "exceptional contributions to solving global environmental problems." More recently, he was nominated for membership in the Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto.
Irony is cracking the seal on a plastic bottle of Danone water- already known for their worldwide water conflicts. Mr. Brown is noting that everyone should be consuming grain as the staple diet. Sorry, no gluton-free, nor grass fed, nor pasture raised, nor Paleo diets. Great talk with Valuable info.
Don't give up my fellow kindred spirit. If we (the people who care) quiet our voices now it is too late. Fight everyday, we are on the brink of a revolution in humanity and society, new sustainable practices are coming out everyday and we need the people who care to make these methods and ideas become common knowledge to all. you are right we can not sit back and watch the worlds resources be plundered, the environment turned into a brownfield. You aren't superman but you don't have to be!
This comment both aged well and not well at all. Anyway, needed to read it
The key to changing a current paradigm (belief system of the masses at that point in time) is to persistently keep the idea in front of others. Each person (it can only be one for example) has a responsibility to themselves and others to stay on track and and tell others what they percieve to be the best action and/or ideas for the good of themselves and thier community. One person's community could possibly be just one person, another person's community can be as large as a million souls.
I can't believe that, of all people and WHEN HE IS TALKING ABOUT WATER SHORTAGES, he takes out a plastic disposable bottle of water and drinks it! Unbelieveable!
Loved the speech. I'm a believer!
You are right, most animals will become sick on grains. I have recently gone sugar and gluten free also. Sprouted flax seed is very good for all as well as rice. The animals need the grass and we should be eating animals that are free range and anitiotic free. I am sure Lester is aware of all of this.
The USDA report predicts 2013-2014 corn ending stocks of 1.887 billion bushels, which is about a 130 percent increase in stocks from 2012-13.
A youtube video by Dr. Albert A. Bartlett called - Arithmetic, Population & Energy - Oil, Peak Oil - is also a great one to watch and think about in relation to the limits of growth.
Do you know that he didn't refill that bottle earlier? Do you know that it wasn't vodka?
Family farms are dying out. Are we surprised the breadbasket is getting smaller. This guy needs to start with his own family.
where are these people that care? I don't know any of them. I would love to do something, but everything seems so inconsequential.......and the problems so immense, it seems it would be better to buy a gun and figure out the best place to go to have access to food and water when it all comes crashing down. That may be a cynical view......
Hello from the future. I'm sorry to inform you, only school children are concerned at this point. The young adults have turned travel into a hobby and brag about it on social media. The baby boomers never cared and continue to not care as they pleasure cruise around the world. It's just game theory at play...
but we're heading into Solar Minimum..what's the Greenland Ice sheet got to do with population???
lol talks about water problems and pulls out nestle bottled water. classic rules for thee..
Cognitive dissonance!