[romania_eu_list] Lester Brown si Plan B 2.0

[Peter Lengyel]

Consider ca merita aruncata o privire spre:
   
  http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/index.htm
   
  Aici putem vedea cateva idei ale lui Lester Brown, presedinte a Earth Policy 
Institute din Washington, D.C. Cateva idei. Numai ca aceste idei se refera la 
tot ce este mai de pret pe Planeta asta. Viitorul omului, viitorul civilizatiei 
noastre. Cuvinte mari, cuvinte grele. Mai cu seama pentru cine este capabil sa 
inteleaga situatia in care ne aflam.
   
  Peter
  :::::::::::::::::::::::
   
  Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble 
by Lester R. Brown 
   
  (...) “Our global civilization today is on an economic path that is 
environmentally unsustainable, a path that is leading us toward economic 
decline and eventual collapse,” 
   
  (...) “Environmental scientists have been saying for some time that the 
global economy is being slowly undermined by environmental trends of human 
origin, including shrinking forests, expanding deserts, falling water tables, 
eroding soils, collapsing fisheries, rising temperatures, melting ice, rising 
seas, and increasingly destructive storms,” 
   
  (...) Although it is obvious that no society can survive the decline of its 
environmental support systems, many people are not yet convinced of the need 
for economic restructuring. 
   
   
  (...) The western economic model—the fossil-fuel-based, auto-centered, 
throwaway economy—is not going to work for China. If it does not work for 
China, it will not work for India, which by 2031 is projected to have a 
population even larger than China’s. Nor will it work for the 3 billion other 
people in developing countries who are also dreaming the “American dream.” 
   
  (...) And, Brown notes, in an increasingly integrated world economy, where 
all countries are competing for the same oil, grain, and steel, the existing 
economic model will not work for industrial countries either. China is helping 
us see that the days of the old economy are numbered. 
   
  (...) Plan B has three components—(1) a restructuring of the global economy 
so that it can sustain civilization; (2) an all-out effort to eradicate 
poverty, stabilize population, and restore hope in order to elicit 
participation of the developing countries; and (3) a systematic effort to 
restore natural systems. 
   
  (...) A strategy for eradicating poverty will not succeed if an economy’s 
environmental support systems are collapsing. Brown says, “This means putting 
together an earth restoration budget—one to reforest the earth, restore 
fisheries, eliminate overgrazing, protect biological diversity, and raise water 
productivity to the point where we can stabilize water tables and restore the 
flow of rivers. Adopted worldwide, these measures require additional 
expenditures of $93 billion per year.” 
   
  (...) “If we fail to build a new economy before decline sets in, it will not 
be because of a lack of fiscal resources, but rather because of obsolete 
priorities,” adds Brown. “The world is now spending $975 billion annually for 
military purposes. A large segment of the U.S. 2006 military budget of $492 
billion, accounting for half of the world total, goes to the development and 
production of new weapon systems. Unfortunately, these weapons are of little 
help in curbing terrorism, nor can they reverse the deforestation of the earth 
or stabilize climate. 
   
   
  (....) “The military threats to national security today pale beside the 
trends of environmental destruction and disruption that threaten the economy 
and thus our early twenty-first century civilization itself. New threats call 
for new strategies. These threats are environmental degradation, climate 
change, the persistence of poverty, and the loss of hope.” 
   
  (...) With climate change we may be approaching the point of no return. The 
temptation is to reset the clock. But we cannot. Nature is the timekeeper. It 
is decision time. Like earlier civilizations that got into environmental 
trouble, we can decide to stay with business as usual and watch our global 
economy decline and eventually collapse. Or we can shift to Plan B, building an 
economy that will sustain economic progress. “It is hard to find the words to 
express the gravity of our situation and the momentous nature of the decision 
we are about to make,” says Brown. “How can we convey the urgency of moving 
quickly? Will tomorrow be too late? “One way or another, the decision will be 
made by our generation. Of that there is little doubt. But it will affect life 
on earth for all generations to come.” 




       
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