Will Sargent reviewed Plan B 4. 0 by Lester R. Brown
Review of 'Plan B 4. 0' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
This is a book written by someone who's clearly an optimist: two thirds of the book detail a work plan for transitioning to sustainable energy systems and reducing our impact on aquifers and on the topsoil to the point where we're not riding a "food bubble" until it pops.
That being said, there are some parts of the book that don't quite add up. He talks about mitigation almost exclusively rather than adaption. He does not go into the economic consequences of oil shock, and he doesn't complete the loop and talk about sustainable agriculture in the context of a hotter climate with flash monsoon weather, floods and storms along the coast. He talks about how overpopulation fed into the Rwanda genocide (p47) and mentions the dire possibility of civil war in India between Muslims and Hindu given the combination of overpopulation and famine, but I couldn't find any direct …
This is a book written by someone who's clearly an optimist: two thirds of the book detail a work plan for transitioning to sustainable energy systems and reducing our impact on aquifers and on the topsoil to the point where we're not riding a "food bubble" until it pops.
That being said, there are some parts of the book that don't quite add up. He talks about mitigation almost exclusively rather than adaption. He does not go into the economic consequences of oil shock, and he doesn't complete the loop and talk about sustainable agriculture in the context of a hotter climate with flash monsoon weather, floods and storms along the coast. He talks about how overpopulation fed into the Rwanda genocide (p47) and mentions the dire possibility of civil war in India between Muslims and Hindu given the combination of overpopulation and famine, but I couldn't find any direct mention of controlling overpopulation in India -- there's talk of reducing poverty, but based on what he says, if India's wheat production collapses there's not much slack in the system.
That being said, these are the best ideas and the best discussion that I've seen on my reading spree.