Lester Brown's Plan B. Begins

Lester Brown's Plan B. begins by laying out the problems that we face going forward. While grim and dire in tone, Brown accurately portrays just how bad the situation is, and how completely unable we are to deal with it. He outlines the cascading effect of environmental catastrophe, and how all of the trends appear to be moving in the wrong direction. His citations span the entire planet, highlighting the reality that this crisis is not local but one that affects all of humanity.

It is hard to feel a twinge of guilt reading his introductory pages, knowing that we all exhibit the consumption patterns that Brown points out are contributing to this destruction Brown's point about the complexity of our society being one of the reasons we cannot deal with these issues is salient. With a more complex society comes increasingly complex forms of governance and the result is that eventually we as a species become ungovernable.

Climate change has fallen so far off the agenda that it was never mentioned in the recent U.S. Presidential campaign. How can the most important issue of our time not even be worthy of mention? The U.S. political system and its inherent complexity make it impossible to even tackle the issue. Interest groups take their short-sighted views and make them prominent.

Politicians who need to be re-elected have an incentive to avoid taking tough action on anything, lest it interfere with people's way of life and therefore ensure that the leader will not be re-elected. How is there not consensus that action needs to be taken? This against comes back to Brown's point about complexity. Most people have a hard time understanding complex systems. To outline the case of climate change would take an entire book or more.

Processing that information is going to be challenging for a lot of people, who then rely on emotional responses as shorthand. It is rare to see the kind of clarity with which Brown writes in the public sphere discussion on the issue. Even people who understand the issues all too well are in a position of not having all of the solutions at their disposal. One might desire to make some changes, but be completely unable to restructure their lives around minimizing their contribution to the problem.

The second part of Brown's work is focused on finding those solutions, and presenting them clearly so that people either at the individual level or the governmental level are not overwhelmed by the complexity of the problem. Brown is right -- this is a challenge that is unprecedented -- and therefore our response also needs to be unprecedented. Technology, with regards to both energy use and energy production, needs to be a key driver of this change. This is one area where private enterprise can take the lead.

Brown notes that there is a significant amount of inertia at the government level, but private enterprise does not suffer that constraint. The development of new technologies must be guided in the direction of making changes in our energy usage patterns, to stop the flow of carbon into our atmosphere There is a role for government policy, however. Brown points out those changes in technology, manufacturing processes and resource usage, and energy production, can all be driven by a combination of government action and private enterprise.

Government makes rules that can spur enterprise in a specific direction. A ban on one substance causes enterprise to seek alternative technologies. Funding for infant industries and tax credits for research encourage specific forms of development. Brown's idea about designing cities for people is one of the most critical factors in his argument. Drawing on the ideas of Jane Jacobs, he argues that cities should not be designed around automobile usage but around the needs of people. High density breeds efficiency.

Understanding the ecology of cities and designing them around maximizing efficiency, minimizing pollution and minimizing waste is the path forward, and Brown is right to highlight this as critical to success. Cities need to find.