Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition
by Lester R. Brown
List Price:
Our Price: $10.48
You Save: $5.47 (34%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.45 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Lester R. BrownEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-16
ISBN: 0393330877
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Book Reviews of Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition
Book Review: An Excellent, Comprehensive Analysis...
Summary: 3 Stars
Lester R. Brown presents an excellent, comprehensive analysis and discussion of the major ecological and social challenges threatening humanity with the possibility of extinction. These include problems with oil and food supplies; climate change and rising sea levels; water shortages; depletion of natural resources; and warnings about possible tipping points in failing social and economic systems. The most concerning factor is global heating, which could reach a tipping point beyond which it would be impossible to reverse the melting of glaciers and the destruction of life as we know it on our planet.
He proposes numerous solutions for our most serious and urgent challenge, climate change, often measured in the numbers of coal-powered electricity generating facilities that could be eliminated. This is vital to climate control because emissions of carbon dioxide from coal burning facilities is the most serious contributor to global warming on the one hand, and one of the most readily replaceable factor on the other hand.
...in plan B we propose to cut net carbon dioxide emissions 80 perent by 2020. our goal is to prevent the atmospheric Co2 concentration from exceeding 400 ppm, thus limiting the future rise in temperature.
This is an extraordinarily ambitious undertanking. It means, for example, phasing out all coal-fired power plants by 2020 while greatly reducing the sue of oil. This is not a simple matter.
We can, however, make this shift using currently available technologies. The three components of this carbon-cutting effort are halting deforestation while planting trees to sequester carbon, ... raising energy efficiency worldwide, ... and harnessing the earth's renewable sources of energy... Plan B calls for using the most energy-efficient technologies available for lighting, for heating and cooling buildings, and for transportation. It calls for an ambitious exploitation of the earth's solar, wind, and geotheramal energy sources. It means, for example, a wholesale shift to plug-in hybrid cars, running them largely on wind-generated electricity. (p. 67)
The challenges that are threatening to overwhelm the capacities of various countries to deal with the pressing problems of their populations are not being addressed in anything resembling serious or concerted efforts by the wealthier nations. Brown points out that relatively modest investments in enhanced education (sums far smaller than are being spent on arms and military engagements) are key to stabilizing social and political crises around the world. These are potential human time bombs that could escalate into global problems of population migrations which would threaten other nations. With basic education it is possible to achieve birth control, reductions in population growth and reducing the spread of AIDS are achievable goals.
Plan be is shaped by what is needed to save civilization, not by what may currently be considered politically feasible. Plan B does not fit within a particular discipline, sector, or set of assumptions.
Implementing Plan B means undertaking several actions simultaneously, including eradicating poverty, stabilizing population, and restoring the earth's natural systems. (p. 20)
This book is a must read for anyone seriously interested in understanding the global crises that threaten the continuation of life as we know it on our planet, and wanting to contribute to preventing this disaster.
If you are not contributing to the solution, you are a part of the problem. -Anonymous
Summary of Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition
"How to build a more just world and save the planet....We should all heed Brown's advice."-Bill ClintonIn this updated edition of the landmark Plan B, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization. The world faces many environmental trends of disruption and decline, including rising temperatures and spreading water shortage. In addition to these looming threats, we face the peaking of oil, annual population growth of 70 million, a widening global economic divide, and a growing list of failing states. The scale and complexity of issues facing our fast-forward world have no precedent
With Plan A, business as usual, we have neglected these issues overly long. In Plan B 3.0, Lester R. Brown warns that the only effective response now is a World War II-type mobilization like that in the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Social Services & Welfare Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Garden as if Your Life Depended on It
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Editionby Lester R. Brown
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-01-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.37
Price in other shops:
World Made by Hand: A Novelby James Howard Kunstler
Atlantic Monthly Press; Published: 2008-02-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.78
Price in other shops:
The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shellby Mark Kurlansky
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2007-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the Worldby Mark Kurlansky
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Salt: A World Historyby Mark Kurlansky
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Outby Jon Robertson
Simon Spotlight Entertainment; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.48
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeedby Jared Diamond
Published: 2005-12-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.53
Price in other shops:
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planetby Mark Lynas
National Geographic; Published: 2008-01-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.63
Price in other shops:
The 11th HourWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-04-08; DVD
Best price: $3.41
Price in other shops:
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planetby Jeffrey D. Sachs
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2008-03-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.69
Price in other shops:
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Futureby Bill McKibben
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2008-03-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.94
Price in other shops:
The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainabilityby James Gustave Speth
Yale University Press; Published: 2008-03-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.47
Price in other shops:
Vital Signs 2007-2008: The Trends that Are Shaping Our Future (Vital Signs)by The Worldwatch Institute
W. W. Norton; Published: 2007-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.55
Price in other shops:
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the Worldby Paul Hawken
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
State of the World 2008: Toward a Sustainable Global Economy (State of the World)by The Worldwatch Institute
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.10
Price in other shops:
Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warmingby Fred Krupp, Miriam Horn
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-03-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops: