Plan B, Chapters 1-3

I don't like this book. It was published in 2009. All of the cited journals and articles are from no earlier than 2009, but some of them are as old as 2004. In the world of science & technology, that's a huge gap. It's 2014. This book is 5 years old and is far too out of date to be giving viable information to students, and I encourage this book be replaced with something more up-to-date as soon as possible.


But back to the quotes...

"Business as usual is no longer a viable option. Food security will deteriorate further unless leading countries collectively mobilize to stabilize population, stabilize climate, stabilize aquifers, conserve soils, protect cropland, and restrict the use of grain to produce fuels for cars"

Grain should not be used for fuel. The yield of fuel produced from corn is extremely low. Algenol, a local business, can produce over 10X the yield with algae to produce ethanol. Technology like that of Algenol is what will cure us of our addiction to fossil fuels.

"While desert expansion and water shortages are now displacing millions of people, rising seas promise to displace far greater numbers in the future, given the concentration of the world's population in low-lying coastal cities and rice-growing river deltas. The numbers could eventually reach the hundreds of millions, offering they another powerful reason for stabilizing both climate and population."

If we don't do something about the amount of CO2 we're dumping into the atmosphere, then we, floridians, will be in serious trouble. Ft. Myers is only 10 ft. above sea level. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the rate of sea level rise for the 3000 years before the industrial revolution averaged only between 0.1 and 0.2 mm/yr, while the rate has increased to 1.8 ± 0.5 mm/yr when averaged from 1961 to 2003. Increasing CO2 emissions will make seas rise even faster, leading to devastation of seaside property.


"With energy, our goal is to close all coal-fired power plants by 2020, replacing them largely with wind farms. In the Plan B economy the transportation system will be electrified with a broad-based shift to plug-in hybrids, all-electric cars, and high-speed intercity rail. And in the Plan B world, cities are designed for people, not for cars."

Cities designed for people, not for cars. Let's have a thought experiment, shall we? A majority of cars run on gasoline. Gasoline comes from oil drilled from the ground. The oil drilled from the ground is owned by the oil companies. The oil companies donate billions of dollars to republicans running for political office in the US. Therefore, the republicans, in order to keep the support of big oil, want to keep them happy, therefore, the republicans build cities designed for cars instead of people, and that's how Tampa, and other republican-run cities were born.