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

Categorized in : Goal Choices Our Generation

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 generations choices

Saving civilization is not a spectator sport.

Lester R. Brown

saving sports civilization

Among the environmental trends undermining our future are shrinking forests, expanding deserts, falling water tables, collapsing fisheries, disappearing species, and rising temperatures. The temperature increases bring crop-withering heat waves, more-destructive storms, more-intense droughts, more forest fires, and, of course, ice melting. We are crossing natural thresholds that we cannot see and violating deadlines that we do not recognize.

Lester R. Brown

ice fire fall

No civilization has survived the ongoing destruction of its natural support systems. Nor will ours.

Lester R. Brown

support-systems growth civilization

Today, more than ever, we need political leaders who can see the big picture, who understand the relationship between the economy and its environmental support systems.

Lester R. Brown

support-systems political leader

Our numbers expand, but Earth's natural systems do not.

Lester R. Brown

earth natural numbers

In Mexico City, Tehran, Kolkata, Bangkok, Shanghai, and hundreds of other cities, the air is no longer safe to breathe. In some cities, the air is so polluted that breathing is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes per day.

Lester R. Brown

breathing cities air

We can build an economy that does not destroy its natural support systems, a global community where the basic needs of all the Earth's people are satisfied, and a world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized. This is entirely doable.

Lester R. Brown

support-systems inspiring thinking

The foundation is being laid for the emergence of both wind and solar cells as cornerstones of the new energy economy.

Lester R. Brown

foundation cells wind

The choice is ours-yours and mine. We can stay with business as usual and preside over a global bubble economy that keeps expanding until it bursts, leading to economic decline. Or we can adopt Plan B and be the generation that stabilizes population, eradicates poverty, and stabilizes climate. Historians will record the choice, but it is ours to make.

Lester R. Brown

records generations choices

The throwaway economy that has been evolving over the last half-century is an aberration, now itself headed for the junk heap of history.

Lester R. Brown

aberration junk half

It takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain. As water becomes scarce and countries are forced to divert irrigation water to cities and industry, they will import more grain. As they do so, water scarcity will be transmitted across national borders via the grain trade. Aquifer depletion is a largely invisible threat, but that does not make it any less real.

Lester R. Brown

aquifers real country

Rising oil prices have focused the world's attention on the depletion of oil reserves. But the depletion of underground water resources from overpumping is a far more serious issue. Excessive pumping for irrigation to satisfy food needs today almost guarantees a decline in food production tomorrow.

Lester R. Brown

issues oil water

The transition from coal, oil, and gas to wind, solar, and geothermal energy is well under way. In the old economy, energy was produced by burning something - oil, coal, or natural gas - leading to the carbon emissions that have come to define our economy. The new energy economy harnesses the energy in wind, the energy coming from the sun, and heat from within the earth itself.

Lester R. Brown

carbon-emissions oil wind

Socialism failed because it couldn't tell the economic truth. Capitalism may fail because it couldn't tell the ecological truth.

Lester R. Brown

environmental failing may

Population growth is exceeding farmers' ability to keep up...Our oldest enemy, hunger, is again at the door.

Lester R. Brown

growth doors enemy

A sustainable economy represents nothing less than a higher social order one as concerned with future generations as with our own, and more focused on the health of the planet and the poor than on material acquisitions and military might. While it is a fundamentally new endeavor, with many uncertainties, it is far less risky than continuing with business as usual.

Lester R. Brown

environmental military order

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse.

Lester R. Brown

causes government country

We know what we have to do. And we know how to do it. If we fail to convert our self-destructing economy into one that is environmentally sustainable, future generations will be overwhelmed by environmental degradation and social disintegration. Simply stated, if our generation does not turn things around, our children may not have the option of doing so.

Lester R. Brown

our-generation self children

We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before.

Lester R. Brown

oil effort car