Brown Published for the Earth Policy Institute by W.W. Norton & Company This book is available free to download from the Earth Policy Institute website or can be bought as a bound paperback from booksellers but both the paperback version, and also a hardback version, can be bought from the Earth Policy Institute website as well. Our generation will make the decision, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come.” MORE

Brown Earth Policy Institute Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. He decided traffic would have to be cut 40 percent by 2020. At this point Mayor Delanoë is working hard to realize his goal of cutting car traffic by 40 percent and carbon emissions by a similar amount by 2020. By Lester R. But in an urbanizing world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. MORE

The reason is that chemical fertilizers and pesticides have a “scorched-earth” policy when it comes to killing off bugs. Urban sprawl produces some of the greatest local extinction rates, frequently eliminates a significant portion of native species, and causes severe habitat loss. Several studies confirm that population numbers and genetic diversity of native species of plants, animals, and insects drop with greater urbanization [1,2,3]. MORE

The Earth’s renewable energy resources are vast and available to be tapped through visionary initiatives. A revamped clean energy economy will harness more energy from the wind and sun, and from within the Earth itself. With PV installations climbing and with costs continuing to fall, cumulative PV generating capacity could surpass 1 million megawatts in 2020. Worldwide, this accelerating pace could yield 200,000 megawatts of generating capacity by 2020. MORE

Ultimately, the vision is so big and involves so many mindset, policy and philosophical changes in the way we think about sustainable development, that a fair assessment can only be made in 50 years - the horizon that its architects and owners have set. which calls for an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 through the type of massive societal transformations we have managed in the past during times of war. MORE

Over the past decade, world wind electric generating capacity grew at nearly 30 percent per year, its increase driven by its many attractive features and by public policies supporting its expansion. If we expanded world wind generation during this decade at 40 percent per year, the 238,000 megawatts of generating capacity at the end of 2011 would expand to nearly 5 million megawatts in 2020. Brown, in the October/November 2012 issue of Mother Earth News. MORE

Next to Japan, the most dramatic shift in nuclear energy policy following Fukushima occurred in Germany. Russia still intends to double its nuclear generating capacity by 2020, and India plans to increase its capacity 14-fold to 63,000 megawatts by 2032. Energy Earth Policy Institute Fukushima Germany IAEA Japan nuclear industry nuclear power MORE

Sustainable energy future My presentation for the ERM Alumni Conference on Energy and Natural Resources Policy, Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus, Germany, 6-10.10.2008 Abstract: The world of fossil fuel – based economy is eventually coming into crisis as these fuels go exhausted. Introduction Every living-thing needs energy to maintain their lives on Earth. In addition, a thoughtful vision is needed for energy policy. Earth Policy Institute. MORE

Entire book (pdf) Data sets Time for Plan B: Cutting Carbon Emissions 80% by 2020 (pdf) Preface (pdf) 1. Rising Temperatures and Rising Seas (pdf) Introduction Rising Temperature and Its Effects The Crop Yield Effect Reservoirs in the Sky Melting Ice and Rising Seas More Destructive Storms Cutting Carbon 80 Percent by 2020 Chapter 3 Data (xls) 4. Data Earth Policy Institute Email: epi@earth-policy.org. MORE

It is with a deepening sense of dread over the fate of future generations that we call on you to acknowledge the severity of the global climate emergency by placing climate stabilization at the top of your policy agendas. Estimates by the World Health Organization are that the Earth's warming climate contributes to more than 150,000 deaths each year. Sincerely, Lester Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute Rev. MORE