Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity by Lester R. Brown

The news media may not be paying much attention, but there are more hungry people than ever before. The problem is everywhere, in countries rich and poor. Unless we demand reform of economies and food policies, the situation is going to steadily get worse, according to Lester R. Brown in his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity.

There are many disturbing developments. One of them is that prices of many staples, including corn and rice have risen sharply, beyond the means of many nations and their poor. One factor in the corn price is its use in the production of ethanol. State and federal laws designed to reduce the use of petroleum have mandated oil companies include ethanol in gasoline. Because of this, less U.S. grain is available to export. While this may make some energy policy sense, it has been a disaster for many of the world's poor, many who have days on which they do not eat.

The population explosion and global warming are also big factors. Rainfall patterns have changed and aquifers are being depleted. Many nations that used to produce sufficient crops to feed their people are now having to import staples. Science is no longer developing miracle crops that will save the day. Richer nations are buying land in poorer nations to raise crops for export, sometimes leaving the locals unfed. Conflict within and between nations is inevitable as the supply of salt-free water and fertile land diminishes.

Full Planet, Empty Plates is an important book that will not take you a long time to read. I suggest that instead of rushing through, however, read just a chapter at a time and let the data sink in. Brown ends with suggestions to reverse trends. None of the reforms will be politically easy.

More libraries should own this book.

Brown, Lester R. Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. W. W. Norton, 2013. 144p. ISBN 9780393344158.

Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet by Edward Humes

When people say "biography," many think about big books, such as Lincoln by David Herbert Donald or John Adams by David McCullough. Readers of biography, however, do not always have to devote days or weeks to big books to get the pleasure of learning about celebrated characters. Though they do not often get much notice, collective biographies have long been an option for biography readers. We Are Lincoln's Men by Donald and Brave Companions by McCullough are notable examples. Even Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has tried her hand at collective biography, having written American Heroines and Leading Ladies. Now, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Edward Humes offers Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet.

If I were a great follower of the business pages in newspaper and magazines, I might have known more about the subjects profiled in Eco Barons before I picked it to read. Doug Tompkins, who supports many environmental organizations and is buying vast reserves in Chile, started the North Face camping equipment and clothing company and then made a fortune selling fashionable clothes under the Esprit label. Roxanne Quimby began selling her Burt's Bee's products at craft fairs and ended up with millions of dollars in land in rural Maine. Terry Tamminen advanced from cleaning swimming pools for the rich and famous to becoming California governor Arnold Schwarznegger's secretary for the environment. Of course, I did know Ted Turner, the media mogul who started Turner Broadcasting and CNN, who has bought vast ranches in the West to turn into wilderness preserves.

As you might expect, rich people turning vast areas into wilderness does not always please area residents who earn their livings from industries that exploit natural resources. Tompkins and Turner in particular seem to have upset many people with secretive purchases and sudden announcements that their lands were closed to mining, lumbering, hunting, fishing, off road vehicles, and development. They have also fought the building of roads and the damming of rivers. Humes also profiles aggressive environmental lawyers, including Kieran Suckling and Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity, who have used the Endangered Species Act to halt clear cutting of forests and force various governmental administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, to enforce environmental laws. All of these people have received death threats from opponents. While the author's profiles of these men and women are mostly admiring, he does show how some have lacked basic understanding of their opponents. The most inspiring story may be that of Quimby who found listening and speaking with the people affected by her plans, offering them some reassurance, helped her save more land.

Humes's very readable profiles range from 20 to 80 pages and include quotes from the subjects, their colleagues, and opponents. Because Eco Barons includes much economic and scientific information, most libraries are shelving it in their ecology section, though it could justifiably be kept with biographies.

Humes, Edward. Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet. Ecco, 2009. 367p. ISBN 9780061350290

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by

Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her founding of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Two years later, her book Unbowed: a Memoir was published to critical acclaim. Now her story is told again in a picture book for children called Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola.

The telling of a story of environmental abuse may seem a bit serious for younger children, but Nivola has simplified the story for ease of elementary understanding. The important point made is that when a person sees a problem, she can do something to solve it. Maathai could have easily accepted that a person could do little about deforestation, but she instead believed that she could with others do very much. As a result 30,000,000 trees have been planted. Caring, cooperation, and the importance of the individual are good lessons for young readers. Older readers should be reminded of this as well.

Planting the Trees of Kenya is the kind of book that parents and teachers may want to read aloud, so they can explain some of the unfamiliar words and describe the problems to their listeners. Then the children should be allowed to look at all the pictures which subtly include much about the culture in Kenya. Libraries with environmental or world cultures collections for children will want to consider this attractive book.

Nivola, Claire A. Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. ISBN 9780374399184

The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

Our energy and resources footprint on this earth is huge, according to The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, but there are many things we can do to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Use wooden baseball bats, which are safer and made from from a renewable resource. Aluminum mining and manufacturing is terribly energy wasteful and environmentally destructive.

Use a commercial car wash instead of washing your car at home to save lots of water.

Keep your microwave clean to keep it energy efficient. Use it to warm up leftovers (instead of the conventional oven) to save energy and lots of money. Cook with it when you can.

The manufacture of laptop or notebook computers uses fewer materials and less energy than desktop computers. Using these smaller computers is also more energy efficient.

Use a voicemail service instead of an answering machine to save energy and non-renewable resources.

The lists of earth-friendly ideas goes on and on. Most are actually very easy if you can just remember to do them, such as share a bigger bag of popcorn at the movies instead of buying two bags.

The authors include reasons with all of their suggestions, sometimes speculating on how great an impact each act would make if adopted by great numbers of people. For instance, if every person flying would pack ten pounds lighter, 350 million gallons of jet fuel would be saved each year. To support their numbers, the authors include fifty pages of web references in the back of the book.

With every chapter, the authors also include celebrity green advice. Will Ferrell drives an electric car, and Jennifer Aniston takes a three minute shower. Instead of tips, other celebrities, such as Robert Redford, explain why they are environmentalists.

This cute little book is inexpensive and definitely belongs in every library.

Rogers, Elizabeth and Kostigen, Thomas M. The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time. Three Rivers Press, 2007. ISBN 9780307381354