[Vision2020] Earth Policy Institute: World on the Edge: Quick Facts

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.earth-policy.org/press_room/C68/wote_quickfacts

World on the Edge: Quick Facts

January 25, 2011

We are facing issues of near-overwhelming complexity and unprecedented urgency.

Can we think systemically and fashion policies accordingly? Can we
change direction before we go over the edge? Here are a few of the
many facts from the book to consider:

There will be 219,000 people at the dinner table tonight who were not
there last night—many of them with empty plates.

If the 2010 heat wave centered in Moscow had instead been centered in
Chicago, it could easily have reduced the U.S. grain harvest of 400
million tons by 40 percent and food prices would have soared.

Winter temperatures in the Arctic, including Alaska, western Canada,
and eastern Russia, have climbed by 4–7 degrees Fahrenheit over the
last half-century. This record rise in temperature in the Arctic
region could lead to changes in climate patterns that will affect the
entire planet.

Half the world’s people live in countries where water tables are
falling as aquifers are being depleted. Since 70 percent of world
water use is for irrigation, water shortages translate into food
shortages.

In Sana’a, the capital of Yemen—home to 2 million people—water tables
are falling fast. Tap water is available only once every 4 days; in
Taiz, a smaller city to the south, it is once every 20 days.

Virtually all of the top 20 countries considered to be “failing
states” are depleting their natural assets—forests, grasslands, soils,
and aquifers—to sustain their rapidly growing populations.

The indirect costs of gasoline, including climate change, treatment of
respiratory illnesses, and military protection, add up to $12 per
gallon. Adding this to the U.S. average of $3 per gallon brings the
true market price closer to $15 per gallon.

Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. coal use dropped 8 percent. During the
same period, 300 new wind farms came online, adding 21,000 megawatts
of U.S. wind-generating capacity.

Algeria has enough harnessable solar energy in its vast desert to
power the entire world economy.

One of the quickest ways to cut carbon emissions is to change light
bulbs. Switching to more-efficient lighting around the globe could
save enough energy to close more than 700 of the world’s 2,800
coal-fired power plants.

“We can get rid of hunger, illiteracy, disease, and poverty, and we
can restore the earth’s soils, forests, and fisheries. We can build a
global community where the basic needs of all people are satisfied—a
world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized.” –Lester
R. Brown

World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse
is available online at www.earth-policy.org.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett