Lester Brown : "We all have a stake in future civilisation"

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http://www.metrofrance.com/fr/article/2007/11/10/12/2946-34/index.xml

Lester Brown : "We all have a stake in future civilisation"

An exclusive interview with Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington and author of "Plan B".

The barrel of oil is approaching 100 dollars, do you think we are at a turning point in the awareness of the need to change?

We are at a turning point. This derives from two or three things: one is the possibility that the peak of world oil production might have been touched last year, according to recent analysis. If that is the case, we are living in a very different world from the one we have known up to now with the oil production continuously going up. It creates an interesting situation because now, for any country to get more oil, another must get less. This combines with the indirect effects caused by biofuels on food prices: the U.S. effort to reduce its fuel insecurity is leading to global food insecurity on a scale that’s going to get much worse next year.

Then we have of course climate change. Put these signals of alarm together and we have almost a perfect storm of forces converging that are going to challenge our early 21th century civilisation. If we cannot effectively respond to these challenges, then civilisation is going to be in serious trouble. Civilisation is now global : we’re either going to make it together or we’re going to decline and collapse together.

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