U.S. Gasoline Use Declining: Keystone XL Pipeline Not Needed Lester R. Brown www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update100 Earth Policy Release Plan B Update October 6, 2011 For Immediate Release As the debate unfolds about whether to build a 1,711-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from the tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas, …
Learning from China: Why the Existing Economic Model Will Fail
Learning from China: Why the Existing Economic Model Will Fail www.earth-policy.org/data_highlights/2011/highlights18 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Data Highlight September 8, 2011 For almost as long as I can remember we have been saying that the United States, with 5 percent of the world’s people, consumes a third or …
Turning Toward the Sun for Energy
Turning Toward the Sun for Energy www.earth-policy.org/book_bytes/2011/wotech9_ss3 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Book Byte June 9, 2011 WOTE ThumbOne key component of the Plan B climate stabilization strategy is solar energy. Solar is even more ubiquitous than wind energy and can be harnessed with both solar photovoltaics (PV) …
Water Shortages Threaten Food Future in the Arab Middle East
Water Shortages Threaten Food Future in the Arab Middle East* www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update95 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Plan B Update May 3, 2011 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 …
World One Poor Harvest Away From Chaos
Article from Earth Policy www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update91 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Plan B Update February 15, 2011 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 use of grain to produce fuel …
Earth Policy Release — Improving Food Security by Strategically Reducing Grain Demand
By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Plan B 4.0 Book Byte November 9, 2010 www.earth-policy.org/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch09_ss6 After several decades of rapid rise in world grain yields, it is now becoming more difficult to raise land productivity fast enough to keep up with the demands of a growing, increasingly affluent, population. …
Civilization’s Foundation Eroding
www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch02_ss2 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Book Byte The thin layer of topsoil that covers the planet’s land surface is the foundation of civilization. This soil, typically 6 inches or so deep, was formed over long stretches of geological time as new soil formation exceeded the natural rate …
The Limits and Potential of Plant-Based Energy
The Limits and Potential of Plant-Based Energy www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch05_ss5 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Book Byte September 15, 2010 As oil and natural gas reserves are being depleted, the world’s attention is increasingly turning to plant-based energy sources. These include food crops, forest industry byproducts, sugar industry byproducts, plantations …
Geothermal: Getting Energy from the Earth
www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch05_ss4 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Book Byte August 31, 2010 The heat in the upper six miles of the earth’s crust contains 50,000 times as much energy as found in all the world’s oil and gas reserves combined. Despite this abundance, only 10,700 megawatts of geothermal electricity …
A Global Shift to Renewable Energy
www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch05_ss1 By Lester R. Brown Earth Policy Release Book Byte August 24, 2010 As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, …