Preventing an Environmental & Economic Collapse – Part 2
As I mentioned, in my previous blog post, I’m sharing the latest release from the Energy Policy Institute.
It’s part of Lester Brown’s latest book, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse.
Enjoy,
-Dan
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Part 2 of 3
Governments that are unable to ensure adequate and affordable food risk political instability and social unrest. If they cannot provide basic security, they may descend into state failure. Many of the world’s failing states are hampered by high population growth rates and a deteriorating resource base, and depend heavily on international food aid.
A NEW DIRECTION:
Time is running short, but we can pull back from the edge. While security is a major concern for the world’s governments, we have inherited a definition of security from the last century, one dominated by two world wars and the Cold War. Rather than armed aggression, today we are at risk from the fallout of climate change, population growth, water shortages, poverty, rising food prices, and failing states. Military spending worldwide exceeds $1.5 trillion annually; yet traditional defense outlays do little to address these true threats to our future. Diverting just 12 percent of global military spending can meet the goals of eradicating poverty, ensuring basic health care, stabilizing population, and restoring the earth’s natural systems.
More data is available in Lester’s book [on Amazon].
Continued in my next blog post…
