September/October 1986
By Lester Brown
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Lester Brown, head of the Worldwatch Institute, indicates how thin the topsoil is in some parts of the world. Brown recently won a $250,000 award from the prestigious MacArthur Foundation for his outstanding work.
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A leading researcher and futurist looks at soil, oil, water, population, and the state — and fate? — of planet Earth.
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While conducting the following interview with Lester Brown, the founder and head of the Worldwatch Institute, Associate Editor Sara Pacher was worried that her tape recorder might not pick up his quiet voice. When she mentioned this concern, Lester smiled. "When you say outrageous things, " he said, "you'd best speak softly. "
"Before the year is out,"wrote Hugh Sidey in Time magazine, shortly after the Institute's 1986 State of the World Report was published last February, "Brown's presumptuous 263 page volume may be studied more intently by more people in more countries than Reagan's [State of the Union] address. And it is arguably a more accurate and provocative picture of the globe than the one sketched by the President. "
MOTHER has long been aware of the accuracy of Mr. Brown's view of the world; we made him the subject of our interview in our milestone 50th issue. Since then the audience for the Worldwatch Papers (a recent one concerned the high costs of decommissioning nuclear power plants) has grown tremendously.
Additionally, in 1985 the producers of "NOVA," the prizewinning television show that comes from station WGBH in Boston, invited Worldwatch to work with them to develop a series — to be based on State of the World for public television. This $5 million, 10 part program will air in early 1988.
It seems only appropriate, as we start on our next 100 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, that we again inscribe a milestone with the words of this knowledgeable, down-to-earth man.
MOTHER: It's interesting to note that many of the forecasts you made during our 1978 interview — such as the drop in beef consumption, changes in land ownership patterns, and the increases in the cost of housing — have come true. Since Worldwatch keeps a sensitive finger on the pulse of the planet, what is your prognosis now? Are Mother Earth and her offspring going to survive — and, if so, in what condition?
BROWN: The future is very difficult to project now, because the rate at which things are changing is unprecedented — and those changes are a product of our advancing technology and our increasing population. For example, most of the fossil fuel that's ever been consumed has been used in my lifetime — indeed, most of it in the last 35 years. This enormous combustion of fossil fuel is literally altering the earth's chemistry. We see it in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which restricts the amount of heat that's radiated out from the earth. We may be getting climate changes as a result.
We're also beginning to realize that the burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal and to a lesser degree oil, results in the production of sulphur dioxide and various nitrogen oxides. These, in turn, contribute to acid rain or — more broadly — air pollution.
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