Eco-Economy by Lester Brown, Earthscan, £17.99, ISBN 1853838268
LESTER Brown, an old green doom-monger, is sounding surprisingly optimistic these days. Rather than predicting mass hunger, he is charting our course to a sustainable future. Even in George Bush’s America, he says, entrepreneurs are signing up thousands of farmers in the mid-West to sell their “wind rights”. The breezes are worth more than corn these days. Fields of turbines in the Dakotas will one day power Chicago; and their whirring blades will bring wealth to Texas long after the oil derricks are gone.
Like many an environmentalist, Brown is now in…
