Our early twenty-first century civilization is being squeezed between advancing deserts and rising seas. Measured by the biologically productive land area that can support human habitation, the earth is shrinking. Mounting population densities, once generated solely by population growth, are now also fueled by the relentless advance of deserts and ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in October 2009, about Agriculture & Food, Children and Families, Climate Change, Deforestation, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Education, Environmental Disasters, Events, Industry & Business, Lifestyle & Behavior, Philosophy & Religion, Politics & Government, Population, Poverty & Development
In April 2005, the World Food Programme and the Chinese government jointly announced that food aid shipments to China would stop at the end of the year. For a country where a generation ago hundreds of millions of people were chronically hungry, this was a landmark achievement. Not only has ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in September 2009, about Agriculture & Food, Children and Families, Economics, Education, Finance & Money, Food, Industry & Business, Lifestyle & Behavior, Politics & Government, Population, Poverty & Development
The stresses in our early twenty-first century civilization take many forms--social, economic, environmental, and political. One distinctly unhealthy and visible illustration of all four is the swelling flow of garbage associated with a throwaway economy. Throwaway products were first conceived following World War II as a convenience and as a ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in August 2009, about Action, Protest, & Activism, Children and Families, Climate Change, Consumerism, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Economics, Education, Events, Finance & Money, Industry & Business, Lifestyle & Behavior, Philosophy & Religion, Politics & Government, Pollution, Population, Poverty & Development
In recent years there has been a growing concern over thresholds or tipping points in nature. For example, scientists worry about when the shrinking population of an endangered species will fall to a point from which it cannot recover. Marine biologists are concerned about the point where overfishing will trigger ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in August 2009, about Art & Culture, Children and Families, Consumerism, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Economics, Education, Environmental Disasters, Finance & Money, Health, Industry & Business, Lifestyle & Behavior, Philosophy & Religion, Politics & Government, Pollution, Population, Poverty & Development
Elevated global temperatures bring a number of threats, including rising seas and more crop-withering heat waves. Higher surface water temperatures in the tropical oceans also provide more energy to drive tropical storm systems, leading to more-destructive hurricanes and typhoons. The combination of rising seas, more powerful storms, and stronger storm ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in June 2009, about Climate Change, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Industry & Business, Population, Poverty & Development, Weather
As the earth warms, the melting of the earth's two massive ice sheets--Antarctica and Greenland--could raise sea level enormously. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level 7 meters (23 feet). Melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise sea level 5 meters ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in June 2009, about Climate Change, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Environment & Wildlife, Environmental Disasters, Population, Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans, Water (1 comment)
In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres," in which he challenged the view that the sun revolved around the earth, arguing instead that the earth revolved around the sun. With his new model of the solar system, he began a wide-ranging debate among ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in May 2009, about Climate Change, Design, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Economics, Environment & Wildlife, Environmental Disasters, Industry & Business, Lifestyle & Behavior, Politics & Government, Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans
Protecting the earth's nearly 4 billion hectares of remaining forests and replanting those already lost are both essential for restoring the earth's health, an important foundation for the new economy. Reducing rainfall runoff and the associated flooding and soil erosion, recycling rainfall inland, and restoring aquifer recharge depend ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in April 2009, about Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Consumerism, Deforestation, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Environment & Wildlife, Industry & Business, Lifestyle & Behavior, Logging, Recycling
In early December 2004, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo "ordered the military and police to crack down on illegal logging, after flash floods and landslides, triggered by rampant deforestation, killed nearly 340 people," according to news reports. Fifteen years earlier, in 1989, the government of Thailand announced a nationwide ban ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in April 2009, about Deforestation, Earth, Soil, & Landscape, Economics, Environment & Wildlife, Environmental Disasters, Industry & Business, Politics & Government, Pollution, Population, Poverty & Development, Water
Ensuring basic health care for people in low-income countries is critical to the Plan B goal of eradicating poverty and stabilizing population. While heart disease and cancer (largely the diseases of aging), obesity, and smoking dominate health concerns in industrial countries, in developing countries infectious diseases are the overriding health ... keep reading
Written by Lester Brown in April 2009, about Economics, Health, Poverty & Development (1 comment)
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Jasmax, an architectural practice, needed a building that not just worked for them as a business but improved Auckland’s urban ... more »
Wellington, New Zealand
Resene are manufacturers of colours, coatings, wood stains and paints for exterior and interior house painting plus commercial, industrial and ... more »
