Jenna Snyder
Final Book Review
Plan B
The book I read was called Plan B 4.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization. At first glance, this book did seem somewhat radical and over the top. After reading the first chapter however, I was hooked. Even though the main subject matter is global warming it is based on much more than that. Instead on just focusing the gloom and doom of our situation, it emphasizes what we can do about it. I also like how it addresses more issues than just the increase in carbon emissions. This book skillfully tackles many hard pressing problems in our world today. Lester R. Brown has a very critical mind set when he talks on many subjects such as eradicating poverty, our frightening global population increase, and the reality of possibly running out of food some day. I took an ecology course about a year ago and it covered many of the same concepts; one of which being our exponential population increase. Because of this, I was able to follow many of his facts and figures. In the first half of the book, Brown emphasizes the state of our current situation. Brown uses multiple facts and figures that bring to light the reality of what is so often just skimmed over. He draws great attention to the gravity of the situation and assesses the topic from a very straight foreword viewpoint. Next, Brown describes steps we as a nation can take to start fixing these issues. He compares technologies between nations, new systems being developed and innovations that are on the forefront of our world markets. One of the biggest things I liked about this book was how recent it has come out. It was published in 2009 so almost all of the information is current and up to date. This is really helpful when discussing science that is all about the newest and greatest thing. This is the part where Brown offers many practical solutions to the problems described. Some of these include, a high speed rail system in the USA
