Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures

By Lester R. Brown

Book Overview

Ever since 9/11, many have considered al Queda to be the leading threat to global security, but falling water tables in countries that contain more than half the world's people and rising temperatures worldwide pose a far more serious threat. Spreading water shortages and crop-withering heat waves are shrinking grain harvests in more and more countries, making it difficult for the world's farmers to feed 70 million more people each year. The risk is that tightening food supplies could drive up food prices, destabilizing governments in low-income grain-importing countries and disrupting global economic progress. Future security, Brown says, now depends on raising water productivity, stabilizing climate by moving beyond fossil fuels, and stabilizing population by filling the family planning gap and educating young people everywhere.

If Osama bin Laden and his colleagues succeed in diverting our attention from the real threats to our future security, they may reach their goals for reasons that even they have not imagined.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393327256
• ISBN13: 9780393327250
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Outgrowing The Earth by Lester Brown

Excellent work as all of this author's are. This book should be required reading for all government ministers of all stated globally. Nick Robson, South Asian Strategic Stability Institute.

enlightening review of the upcoming global food crisis

"Outgrowing the Earth" is another great contribution by Lester Brown. In ten concise chapters the author reviews the relationship between continuing human population growth and the finite land and water resources of the planet. I found the discussion of falling water tables especially interesting and important. I was also glad to see the increasing food needs of China as well as the potential for increasing food production in Brazil were both covered from several angles. There were also extensive endnotes and a decent index, both of which I found useful. In summary, this is another important and well-researched publication for anyone interested in issues of food security in these times of diminishing fuel reserves, rising temperatures, and falling water tables.

A sober, apparently scientific presentation of relevent facts

I'm not a scienttist. I recently became interested, however, in the issue of the sustanability of the human race. Much of my concern has been due to political uncertainties, but I also wondered about some fundamental environmental issues. Since I have not read much in the field of environmentalism, I can not say for certain how solid Brown's facts are, but it does appear he presents many claims, in this book and in the web site that the book refers to, which would enable his claims (and priorities) to be tested. It would be unusual for one person to have everything right on such complex issues but if Brown has presented what he sees clearly and verifiably, that seems a great help to us all. It seems a big help to me personally. Brown does not focus on catastrophe in this relatlively subdued 2005 book: it is clearly instead stated many times to be about food security. He is concerned, but doesn't speculate, as to how polticians and nations will react if the food security challenge is not met. Beyong warming, which dominates the news, Brown raises concerns about issues I was less familar with such as the water tables. I definitely plan now to read Brown's "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble" which does sound more alarmist. Even if scientists ran the world, it seems we might be in grave danger but with our current set of politicians, how can we feel confident? This may be a time when every good world citizen sets aside national boundaries and steps forward to seek a solution to the earth's woes for the sake of the future of our descendants.

must read for people who expect to eat in the future

This is an outstanding work, highlighting the very likely risk of future global food shortages and food price inflation. During most of our western-world memory there was on oversupply of basic food and governments were concerned about too much grain and prices dropping too low. Lester Brown makes a very convincing case that the opposite is likely to happen in the future. His opinions are very well documented and based on plenty of statistics.

wake up call

this is an excellent and well written overview of the many challenges facing the world as it faces increasing demands for food and decreasing food supplies due to factors such as urbanization, global warming, increased population, water shortages. the author presents the issues in a factual and articulate manner without seeking to be too alarmist or anti-business. the book is short on rhetoric but full of relevant data from which the reader can form his/her own conclusions. it makes you think about food in an entirely new perpsective.