Earth Equity News

Lester Brown: We Shouldn't Count on Copenhagen to Save Us. Interview by Matilda Lee, Ecologist, November 10, 2009. "Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute and the WorldWatch Institute, [shares his views on a number of climate issues]... 'This year the number of automobiles will drop by 4 million -- 14 million scrapped and 10 million new sales -- a market shrinkage... Over the past couple years, the US has seen the development of a powerful grassroots movement opposing new coal fired power plants. It has created a de facto moratorium on new coal-fired plants. I doubt that anyone is ever going to get a new license for a coal fired power plant. There are now 22 slated for closing, and many more next year... Just looking at what has happened in the last 9 months is important. In February, just after President Obama took office, he announced new automotive fuel standards (42 mpg for cars and 25 mpg for pickups and SUVs) and instructed the Department of Energy to get cracking in translating a backlog of legislation on energy efficiency into regulatory standards (e.g. raising the efficiency of household appliances, legislation which for years under the Bush administration wasn't implemented)... We've reduced carbon emissions in the US 9% in the last two years -- the larger part of that is because of the recession, but a substantial part is energy efficiency and a shift to renewables...

"'[However] most population growth around the world is happening where soils are eroding and water tables are falling. The number of failing states we have in the world today is disturbing - 16 of the top 20 have high rates of population. I don't think that's a coincidence - I think it is associated with the problems of population growth. It will take outside help - in terms of technical assistance, investment and filling the family planning gap itself to halt this growth... Much of Asia's rice is grown on low-lying river deltas -- half of Bangladesh's rice land [will be] under water with a one metre rise in sea level. If Greenland goes entirely it is seven meters. With the Mekong delta, producing half the rice of Vietnam, Vietnam being the number two rice exporter, a one metre rise in sea level means a good part of that is gone. We need more people to look at the big picture... The top two priorities are campaigns that aim to stop the use of coal and coal-fired power plants, and efforts to stabilize the world's population... I think we should go to Copenhagen with a bold proposal and push really hard but I don't think we should count on it to save civilization." Lester Brown's new book Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (WW Norton, 2009) can be downloaded here[PDF, 199 pp].