Lester Brown's "Plan B" - Civilization Collapse directly linked to Food Production

Who Will Feed China.
 (Update...see entire movie below)

In a chilling documentary aired on PBS last night (3/30/11), actor Matt Damon (Goodwill Hunting) narrates the introduction to Lester Brown and his recent world tour that outlines Brown's "Plan B".  Brown's tour includes stops across the globe introducing powerful heads of state to the concept and historical thesis that the "failed state" civilization collapse are tied directly to food scarcity. 

The film opens with Brown explaining the domino effect of global warming and the direct impact to the Tibetan Plan "drying out", causing catastrophic disruption to the major rivers in Asia that are the lifeblood to the world's densest populations.  If these rivers are depleted, the impact to food production will be catastrophic and will lead to starvation globally.

Brown dives into population statistics to make his point clear.  The explosion in Asian population and the increase in purchasing power of those people moving up the "food chain" will strain the world's food supply and a tipping point will be reached.  Not only does the population increase strain the supply, but the recent conversion of grain into fuel (ethanol) adds to the pressure. 1/4 of the US grain production is used for our automobiles. 

There are things we can do to stop or reverse the trend towards the tipping point...thus the "Plan B", but Brown's plan is ambitious and here in the US I wonder if people are paying attention?  I recommend a search on YouTube for Lester Brown and is various lectures...the rabbit hole is deep and frightening.  There are sceptics, however Brown's logic is clear.  Here is the trailer for the film.  Pass it on:

Watch the full episode. See more Journey to Planet Earth.

Watch the full episode. See more Journey to Planet Earth.

Under the Covers of the WSJ List Top 10 "Clean Tech"

The Wall Street Journal published an article listing the top 10 Clean-Tech companies.  Names like Solyndra, Suniva, eSolar, & Recyclebank top the list.  The list is informative on who is doing what, but let's dig a bit deeper into the "industry" as a whole and look at the reality of some of these organizations.  As one person in the comments section pointed out,  the picture used in the article (see below) "that's the old Tehachapi Gorge site, and those wind turbines were abandoned YEARS ago."  Ooops.

 

So what was the criteria and how were these companies selected?  The WSJ goes on to explain the process:

 "...at the Journal's ECO:nomics Executive Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., seeks to identify green companies with the greatest potential to succeed in an increasingly competitive sector....based on a strict set of criteria applied to 516 U.S.-based venture-backed businesses in clean technology....Candidates were analyzed on the amount of capital raised in the past three years; the track records of each company's founders, managers and investors; and the percentage change in its valuation in the 12 months ended Nov. 30."

Keeping the word POTENTIAL to succeed is very important here.  As another commenter points out, should we really consider a company like Solyndra, Inc. a success story because Obama gave them $535 MILLION? 

Ok..hold the phone.  Let's now bring this discussion to a more global, comparison.  I would be remiss if I didn't draw a parallel of US Government "intervention" grants into the clean-tech space to the recent Invetment Outlook Newsletter published by PIMCO's Bill Gross .  The Government is making big bets on these "potentially" successful Clean-Tech companies because it needs to show the world that we are trying to find solutions to oil dependency (among many other reasons).  While at the same time the Fed pumps freshly printed dollars into QE2 buying up Tresuries.  What happens when the money runs out in both situations?  Are many of these "clean tech" organizations going to end up like the Tehachapi Gorge site in the photo above without government stimulus?  We should all be very concerned on both fronts.  Libya an the rest of the middle east is on the brink driving oil prices through the roof putting an exclamation point on our dependence on foreign oil and Bill Gross's commentary on QE2 is on the money - who will buy the Treasuries?   

There are certainly Clean-Tech companies out there that have the potential to really have an impact on humanity, the economy, employment, the environment, etc... Here's to hoping that stimulus isn't the only way these companies survive.