{"id":10118,"date":"2011-01-25T11:09:10","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T17:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=10118"},"modified":"2011-01-25T11:09:10","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T17:09:10","slug":"world-on-the-edge-quick-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/world-on-the-edge-quick-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"World on the Edge: Quick Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 15px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/\/images\/uploads\/book_images\/wote_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse\" width=\"122\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a>We are facing issues of near-overwhelming complexity and unprecedented urgency. Can we think systemically and fashion policies accordingly? Can we change direction before we go over the edge? Here are a few of the many facts from the book to consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech1\">219,000 people at the dinner table tonight who were not there last night<\/a>\u2014many of them with empty plates.<\/li>\n<li>If the 2010 heat wave centered in Moscow had instead been centered in Chicago, it could easily have reduced the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech1\">U.S. grain harvest of 400 million tons by 40 percent<\/a> and food prices would have soared.<\/li>\n<li>Winter temperatures in the Arctic, including Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia, have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech4\">climbed by 4\u20137 degrees Fahrenheit over the last half-century<\/a>. This record rise in temperature in the Arctic region could lead to changes in climate patterns that will affect the entire planet.<\/li>\n<li>Half the world\u2019s people live in countries where water tables are falling as aquifers are being depleted. Since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech2\">70 percent of world water use is for irrigation<\/a>, water shortages translate into food shortages.<\/li>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<li>In Sana\u2019a, the capital of Yemen\u2014home to 2 million people\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech2\">water tables are falling fast<\/a>. Tap water is available only once every 4 days; in Taiz, a smaller city to the south, it is once every 20 days.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech7\">Virtually all of the top 20 countries considered to be \u201cfailing states\u201d<\/a> are depleting their natural assets\u2014forests, grasslands, soils, and aquifers\u2014to sustain their rapidly growing populations.<\/li>\n<li>The indirect costs of gasoline, including climate change, treatment of respiratory illnesses, and military protection, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech13\">add up to $12 per gallon<\/a>. Adding this to the U.S. average of $3 per gallon brings the true market price closer to $15 per gallon.<\/li>\n<li>Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. coal use dropped 8 percent. During the same period, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech9\">300 new wind farms came online<\/a>, adding 21,000 megawatts of U.S. wind-generating capacity.<\/li>\n<li>Algeria has enough harnessable solar energy in its vast desert to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech9\">power the entire world economy<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>One of the quickest ways to cut carbon emissions is to change light bulbs. Switching to more-efficient lighting around the globe could <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\/wotech8\">save enough energy to close more than 700 of the world\u2019s 2,800 coal-fired power plants<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cWe can get rid of hunger, illiteracy, disease, and poverty, and we can restore the earth\u2019s soils, forests, and fisheries. We can build a global community where the basic needs of all people are satisfied\u2014-a world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized.\u201d \u2013Lester R. Brown<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse<\/strong> is available online for free downloading at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote\">www.earth-policy.org\/books\/wote<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Ready to lighten your own impact? We&#8217;ve got the tools you need: from <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/categories\/renewable-energy\/solar-products\/solar-panels\">solar panels<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/choices\/eddy-vertical-axis-wind-turbine-system-package-from-urban-green-energy\">wind turbines<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/categories\/bathroom\/water-savers\">water saving fixtures<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/categories\/eco-home\/eco-garden\/rain-barrels\">rain barrels<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are facing issues of near-overwhelming complexity and unprecedented urgency. Can we think systemically and fashion policies accordingly? Can we change direction before we go over the edge? Here are&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":17682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,7],"tags":[393,4775,19,1906,6,3157,109],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Quick Facts from Lester Brown&#039;s World on the Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are the current environmental challenges we face? Here are some quick facts on them from Lester Brown&#039;s new book World on the Edge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/world-on-the-edge-quick-facts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quick Facts from Lester Brown&#039;s World on the Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are the current environmental challenges we face? 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