The thin layer of topsoil that covers much of the earth’s land surface is the foundation of civilization. As long as soil erosion on cropland does not exceed new soil [ … ]
Tag: lester brown
Rising Temperatures Melting Away Global Food Security
By Lester R. Brown Heat waves clearly can destroy crop harvests. The world saw high heat decimate Russian wheat in 2010. Crop ecologists have found that each 1-degree-Celsius rise in [ … ]
Water Shortages Threaten Food Future in the Arab Middle East
By Lester R. Brown Long after the political uprisings in the Middle East have subsided, many underlying challenges that are not now in the news will remain. Prominent among these [ … ]
“Let No Man Say It Cannot Be Done”: Restructuring the American Economy
By Lester R. Brown We need an economy for the twenty-first century, one that is in sync with the earth and its natural support systems, not one that is destroying [ … ]
Smart Population Planning for the Global Family
By Lester R. Brown When it comes to population growth, the United Nations has three primary projections. The medium projection, the one most commonly used, has world population reaching 9.2 [ … ]
Can the United States Feed China?
By Lester R. Brown In 1994, I wrote an article in World Watch magazine entitled “Who Will Feed China?” that was later expanded into a book of the same title. [ … ]
Wind: The Centerpiece of the Plan B Economy
By Lester R. Brown For many years, a small handful of countries dominated growth in wind power, but this is changing as the industry goes global, with more than 70 [ … ]
Why World Food Prices May Keep Climbing
By Lester R. Brown In February, world food prices reached the highest level on record. Soaring food prices are already a source of spreading hunger and political unrest, and it [ … ]
By the Numbers – Data Highlights from World on the Edge
The hundreds of data sets that accompany Lester Brown’s latest book, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, illustrate the world’s current predicament and give a [ … ]
World One Poor Harvest Away From Chaos
By Lester R. Brown In early January, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that its Food Price Index had reached an all-time high in December, exceeding the previous [ … ]
Lester Brown’s World on the Edge: Mobilizing against Collapse
For a number of years, we’ve used the Apollo project as metaphor for the kinds of transformation we need to create in terms of our energy and resource use. It’s [ … ]
Environmental and Demographic Forces Threaten State Failure
By Lester R. Brown Uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and across the Middle East at the start of 2011 have reminded the world just how politically fragile some countries are. But [ … ]
Restoring Food Security for All Takes Action on Many Fronts
By Lester R. Brown Today there are three sources of growing demand for food: population growth; rising affluence and the associated jump in meat, milk, and egg consumption; and the [ … ]