Population growth is exceeding farmers' ability to keep up...Our oldest enemy, hunger, is again at the door. Lester R. Brown More Quotes by Lester R. Brown More Quotes From Lester R. Brown The 20th century was the time when the world turned to use of fossil fuels and the 21st century will be the century of the renewables. Lester R. Brown fuel use world In today's integrated world economy, ... eradicating poverty may contribute as much to U.S. security as eradicating terrorism. Lester R. Brown poverty may world Humanity's greatest challenge may soon be just making it to the next harvest. Lester R. Brown environmental humanity challenges Nations are in effect ceding portions of their sovereignty to the international community and beginning to create a new system of international environmental governance. Lester R. Brown global-warming environmental community The problem with water, though, is that the shortfalls don't show up until the very end. You can go on pumping unsustainably until the day you run out. Then all you have is the recharge flow, which comes from precipitation. This is not decades away, this is years away. We're already seeing huge shortages in China, where the Yellow River runs dry for part of each year. The Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization. It first failed to reach the sea in 1972, and since 1985 it's run dry for part of each year. For 1997 it was dry for 226 days. Lester R. Brown sea running years Farmers...can no longer keep up with rising demand; thus the outlook is for chronic scarcities and rising prices. Lester R. Brown rising-prices environmental scarcity They have also been adopting fuel efficiency standards for automobiles in China. Lester R. Brown efficiency china fuel Global food insecurity is increasing...the slim excess of growth in food production over population is narrowing. Lester R. Brown environmental insecurity growth Yet, most of the readily accessible reserves of oil formed over hundreds of millions of years will be consumed within a single generation, spanning the years from 1960 to 1995. Lester R. Brown environmental oil years If an economy is to sustain progress, it must satisfy the basic principles of ecology. If it does not, it will decline and eventually collapse. There is no middle ground Lester R. Brown progress principles doe Each summer, for example, nitrogen and phosphate washing from farmlands in the Mississippi Valley enter the Gulf of Mexico, creating a massive algal bloom covering some 16,000 square kilometers. As the blooms die off, this area-roughly the size of New Jersey-is so deprived of oxygen that no fish survive. Lester R. Brown oxygen squares summer Another agricultural trend of growing concern is the increased nutrient content of coastal waters resulting from fertilizer runoff in agricultural regions. Augmented by urban sewage discharge in some situations, this results in huge algal blooms, which, as they die and decay, deplete the oxygen content in the water, leading to the death of the fish. Lester R. Brown environmental oxygen water The foundation is being laid for the emergence of both wind and solar cells as cornerstones of the new energy economy. World wind generating capacity grew from 7,600 megawatts in 1997 to 9,600 in 1998, an expansion of 26 percent. At a national level, Germany led the way, adding 790 megawatts of capacity, followed by Spain with 380 megawatts, and the United States with 226 megawatts. In the past, U.S. wind generating capacity was concentrated in California, but in 1998, wind farms began generating electricity in Minnesota, Oregon, and Wyoming, broadening the new industry's geographical base. Lester R. Brown oregon california past Our early 21st century civilization is in trouble. We need not go beyond the world food economy to see this. Over the last few decades we have created a food production bubble-one based on environmental trends that cannot be sustained, including overpumping aquifers, overplowing land, and overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Lester R. Brown aquifers land civilization In the Middle East, where populations are growing fast, the world is seeing the first collision between population growth and water supply at the regional level. For the first time in history, grain production is dropping in a geographic region with nothing in sight to arrest the decline. Each day now brings 10,000 more people to feed and less irrigation water with which to feed them. Lester R. Brown sight water people Saving Greenland is both a metaphor and a precondition for saving civilization. If its ice sheet melts, sea levels will rise 23 feet. Hundreds of coastal cities will be abandoned. The rice growing river deltas of Asia will be under water. There will be hundreds of millions of rising-sea refuges. The word that comes to mind is chaos. If we cannot mobilize to save the Greenland ice sheet; we probably cannot save civilization as we know it. Lester R. Brown ice sea civilization Nuclear power, once regarded as petroleum's natural heir, has become less and less attractive as its numerous drawbacks come to light. Coal, the other fossil fuel, is ultimately as exhaustible as oil. Lester R. Brown environmental oil light The challenge is either to build an economy that is sustainable or to stay with our unsustainable economy until it declines. It is not a goal that can be compromised. One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come. Lester R. Brown our-generation choices goal In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage, and countries are scrambling to secure their own parochial interests at the expense of the common good. Lester R. Brown oil land gold
