Plan B

What I've read so far from "Plan B 4.0" by Lester R. Brown, has helped me to think about the relationship between economics, production, and the environment. Brown highlights the main issues going on in the world among those three factors, and then introduces an alternative called "Plan B" to reverse the issues such as food shortages created by "soil erosion, falling water tables, and rising carbon emissions." (Brown 4)


"Whatever happens to the wheat and rice harvests in [China and India] will affect food prices everywhere." (Brown 6)


We need each other to have the food we need. China and India are the two leading wheat producers of the world, and because of the melting of mountain glaciers on which the two country's irrigation systems depend, the world will face a threat to food security that is bigger than it's ever faced. (Brown 6)

Photo by Sustainablog.org

"This massive acquisition of land to grow food in other countries is one of the largest geopolitical experiments ever conducted." (Brown 10)

Brown is referring to countries who have surpassed their own land and water resources, and buy land from other countries in order to produce for their own people. It's interesting because the countries that are selling their land are those that need that land the most. One such country is Ethiopia, in which the World Food Programme (WFP) works to feed 4.6 million people. (Brown 11)

"Our mismanaged world economy today has many of the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme." (Brown 14)

This means basically that we are using up the world's supplies in ways in which will eventually leave us without them, and cause a shortage. It looks good for now but soon it will go bad. For example, the world's major aquifers were being overpumped as of mid-2009, and we have more irrigation water than before that started, but once the aquifers are used up, the system will collapse by leaving us with a shortage of irrigation water. (Brown 14)

"our global Ponzi economy was not intended to collapse. It is on a collision path because of market forces, perverse incentives, and poorly chosen measures of progress." (Brown 15)

Unfortunately the way the global economy has worked in the recent past is thinking short-term. It does not regard the limited amount of resources of natural systems. It doesn't include the complete costs of production. Brown gives the example that when we use electricity from a coal-fired power plant we get billed monthly by the local utility. However, we don't get charged for the climate change caused by burning coal.  (Brown 16)

Photo by bwf-group.de