Eco-Economy by Lester Brown, Earthscan, 拢17.99, ISBN 1853838268
LESTER Brown, an old green doom-monger, is sounding surprisingly optimistic these days. Rather than predicting mass hunger, he is charting our course to a sustainable future. Even in George Bush鈥檚 America, he says, entrepreneurs are signing up thousands of farmers in the mid-West to sell their 鈥渨ind rights鈥�. The breezes are worth more than corn these days. Fields of turbines in the Dakotas will one day power Chicago; and their whirring blades will bring wealth to Texas long after the oil derricks are gone.
Like many an environmentalist, Brown is now in the solutions business. Eco-Economy is his latest lucid and wide-ranging examination of how we can save our forests, grow rich on power generated from wind and sun, halt global warming and heal the ozone layer.
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Never one to undersell himself, Brown calls the intellectual revolution we are going through to achieve it the biggest since Copernicus decided the Earth revolved round the Sun. 鈥淭he issue now is whether the environment is part of the economy or the economy is part of the environment.鈥� Yankee-centric, yes, but definitely state-of-the-art.