Blog - Plan B 4.0; Ch. 1-3,10

For this blog entry I will be reflecting on some quotes from Lester Brown's: Plan B 4.0. These are my thoughts, beliefs, questions, and/or concerns.

"The historic grain price climb in the last few years underlines the gravity of the situation." - Lester Brown (Brown 3)

This quote was eye opening to me because I always thought we had too much grain. I remember hearing stories from my parents and teachers where the United States would send boat loads of grain to poor countries just because they had too much and it would be wasted if they didn't. When you live here in the United States you barely notice things like a raise in grain price but when you think of the poorer nations in the world that already have high poverty levels that grain price climb can be significant.

 

http://www.anutritionisteats.com/ask-the-nutritionist-buying-bread/

"Many of the worlds largest cities such as Los Angles, Cairo, and New Delhi, can increase their water consumption only by taking it from agriculture." - Lester Brown (Brown 43)

Water just like grain we talked about in the last quote is something we take for granted. We take long showers, let the water run while brushing out teeth, ect. It's all so wasteful but it never really registers in our head to save our water. How can something so valuable to our existence be treated so disrespectfully but something gold which we don't need is so valuable? It’s simply because water is so easy to come by in first world countries we just turn on a tap and there's drinking water, as humans we seem to only respect things that are hard to get. Now we see in some of the biggest cities in the world water shortages are becoming a reality believe it or not. It’s come to the point where the water needs to come from there agriculture supplies, this is not a good sign. How long can these cities maintain their current water ways, are we heading to a time where only the richest will get the clean water?

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/27/local/la-me-ln-long-beach-water-restrictions-20140227

"But one thing we do know is that business as usual will not continue for much longer." - Lester Brown (Brown 241)

After reading through the four chapters I get a feel that the author is pretty adamant with his statements. There is no changing his mind its Plan B all the way and it needs to be put into action right now. When it comes to the quote I do understand where he is coming from and I agree with his statement but what the author wants done takes time and money. I believe people are starting to understanding what’s going on with the environment and are working to help preserve it. The author is just too out there with his ideas, in one section he talks about adding 40 cents to the current gas prices each year for the next 10 years. It would take someone who has the same environmental knowledge, experiences, and respect to agree to a drastic change like this one proposed.

 

http://mundabor.wordpress.com/tag/environmentalism/