Lester R. Brown: Author, Ecologist and Economist

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

PLOWBOY: Fantastic!

BROWN: The interesting thing is, as a result of what the Chinese are doing, that President Carter asked the Army Corps of Engineers to do a survey of the dams in this country. And they found that in the U.S. today, there are 49,000 existing dams of one sort or another that could be-but aren't-used to generate electricity. It's not a question of "Do we build this dam?" or "Don't we build that dam?" The dams are already there. They already have water behind them and that water already falls. It's just a matter of putting a generator in each dam, capturing energy in the form of electricity, and hooking into the utility grid that already exists all across the country.

PLOWBOY: How much electricity could we expect to get if we were to back-fit all our dams with generators?

BROWN: A surprising amount. These 49,000 dams we're talking about could produce more power than all the nuclear plants in the country put together. And yet we'd harness that power at a tiny fraction of what it cost to build the nuclear plants. Without incurring any of the risks.

PLOWBOY: Why aren't we doing this? The Chinese are making us look kind of stupid.

BROWN: Well I suppose we'd have to say we are rather stupid. We still have this confounded "bigger is better" mentality that's holding us back. We refuse to look for simple solutions. The idea of seeking small solutions for big problems has not been a part of our intellectual baggage until fairly recently. That-in part-is why we're faced with such profound changes in the years ahead.

PLOWBOY: A few minutes ago, you mentioned that the profound changes you foresee derive from two sources: One is the energy situation, and the other-you said-had to do with stresses being placed on the earth's biological systems.

BROWN: That's right.

PLOWBOY: What are the biological systems that concern you the most?

BROWN: I'm talking primarily about four biological systems: fisheries, forests, grasslands, and croplands. The first three are essentially natural systems ... the fourth is man-made. The important thing to recognize about these four systems is that they provide all of our food ... a good deal of the world's energy, in the form of firewood ... and all of the raw materials used in industry except for minerals and petrochemicals. That's really quite startling, if you think about it. Humanity depends for its very survival on these four biological systems. But as human demands-fueled by both population growth and rising affluence-put more and more pressure on the biosphere, we see that the claims being made on the biological systems are beginning to exceed the systems' regenerative capacities.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print