Mobilising to save civilisation means restructuring the economy, restoring the economy’s natural support systems, eradicating poverty and stabilising population, writes Lester Brown, the founder of the Earth Policy Institute.

Combining social goals and Earth restoration into a Plan B budget would cost an extra 161 billion dollars a year, which is approximately one-third of the current US military budget or one-sixth of the amount spent globally.

While we wait for this shift, amazingly, the best thing individuals can do is to switch light bulbs. In an update of Plan B, Lester Brown says switching light bulbs is an easy way of realising large, immediate gains in energy efficiency.

If the rest of the world joins Australia in phasing out incandescent light bulbs by 2010, the drop in the use of electricity worldwide would permit the closing of more than 270 coal-fired power plants, of 500 megawatts each.

The good news is that the world may be approaching a social tipping point. California Assemblyman, Lloyd Levine proposes that his state phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs by 2012. He calls his proposed law the How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb? Act’.

The Earth Policy Institute is dedicated to the development of an environmentally sustainable economy ñ an eco-economy ñ as well as a roadmap of how to get from here to there.

Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble’ by

Lester Brown, contact: Earth Policy Institute, 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW,

Washington DC 20036, USA

Website: www​.earthpolicy​.org

Below: Lester Brown

Photo: © Earth Policy Institute