This article is a review of Eco-Economy by Lester Brown. The book is an important one and deserves a wide audience. Lester Brown draws on decades of experience, particularly at the Worldwatch Institute, which have given him a great overview and insight into both the global environment and the economy. The book is clearly written and well referenced and should be read by everybody regardless of whether they think of themselves as green or not.
Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth
by Lester Brown
WW Norton & Company, New York and London, 2001
ISBN: 0393321932
Reviewed by David Reid
The dominant worldview today is one where the environment is merely a subset of the economy. Data such as GDP, inflation and corporate profits are eagerly reported by the world'd media and stock markets react swiftly to it. Other data like rising global temperatures, the collapse of major fisheries and falling water tables, even when reported by the media, elicit little reaction. Hence the need for a Copernican shift in worldview where the economy is seen as part of the environment.
In Eco-Economy Lester Brown forcefully argues the case for a new worldview; the need for an eco-economy. The opening chapters of Eco-Economy make sombre reading. Lester Brown draws on his vast knowledge and experience to explain that nearly every area of human activity is at or above ecologically sustainable limits. Many of the statistics come from China. With its large population and area combined with a rapidly industrialising economy it holds up a magnifying glass to the rest of the world. The view through that magnifying glass is frightening. If China were to consume as much fish per capita as Japan it would consume the world's entire catch. If every Chinese home had one or two cars in the garage like the US China would need more oil than the world currently produces.
Of course these are future projections but the present reality is little better. In order to meet the expanding demand for food China has ploughed and overgrazed areas in its northwest creating some of the largest dust storms ever recorded. The water table under the North China Plain which produces 25 percent of China's grain is falling at a rate of 1.5 metres per year. However, the problem of overpumping aquifiers is not confined to China. This problem is also impacting on agricultural production in India, the US and elsewhere.
The bad news continues: the world's forests are shrinking by 9 million hectares per year (an area the size of Portugal); two thirds of oceanic fisheries are being fished at or above their sustainable yield; and increasing atmospheric CO2 levels are driving an increase in global temperatures.
If the opening chapters of this book cannot convince the reader of the need for an eco-economy nothing will. Thankfully the news is not all bad and Lester Brown uses the rest of the book to identify the characteristics of an eco-economy and detail a path for getting there.
Some countries have already adopted elements of an eco-economy. Many European countries and Japan have stabilised their populations and China is moving toward population stability. Denmark generates 15 percent of its electricity from wind power. More than 30 percent of trips in Copenhagen and Amsterdam are made by bicycle.
The eco-economy that Lester Brown envisages runs on hydrogen instead of oil and its cities are designed for people (and bicycles) not cars. Wind turbine engineers, bicycle mechanics and and family planning midwives will be the growth areas of employment in the new economy.
The main elements of the path to an eco-economy are stabilising population, restructuring the economy--mainly via subsidies and tax shifting (to eco-taxes), and greater leadership and responsibility from the UN, government, the media, corporations and NGOs. The final question Lester Brown asks is "Is there enough time?" It is already too late to save the Aral Sea, but there is still time if we move quickly. What is needed is a "war effort" where understanding the magnitude of the threat faced leads to rapid action being taken. What is needed is a a world that reacts as swiftly to rising CO2 emmissions as it does to rising interest rates.
Lester Brown's vision for an eco-economy is not so much a radical one as a necessary one. Anything less than the action he proposes will result in future disaster on a global scale. It is something that can be achieved within the existing political frameworks creating a potentially wide audience for this book. As such it makes important reading.
NOTE: The entire contents of this book can be downloaded for free online at www.earth-policy.org