Lester Brown is “one of the world’s most influential thinkers”, according to the Washington Post, and the Calcutta refers to him as “the guru of the environmental movement”. He has been trying to analyze problems and also trying to find solutions to these problems. Books such as Seeds of Change (1970) and Who will Feed China? (1995) may have not forseen exactly how things will happen, but the issues he treats are very important, especially in these times.An advocate of wind and solar power since the days when most saw them as hopelessly fringe, he believes the following years will be very important in leaning the balance towards a healthy green economy and industry. He also says this movement will start from America, as Europe still relies heavily on oil and coal. Despite the fact that he says carbon capture and storage attempts are highly unefficient, he is still optimistic, but not just as optimistic as Al Gore.

“We’ve just seen the first big win in the fight to stabilise the world’s climate. It’s just possible that by the end of 2008 we’ll have something approaching a de facto moratorium on new coal plants in the US. We’ve crossed a tipping point on this issue, and it’s amazing how fast it has happened. This could be the first big win in the effort to stabilise the earth’s climate.”

Also, wind will be massive according to him. The Texan sized ambition for wind turbines is just another step in achieving this goal. He points out something that is important, despite the fact that many people don’t admit it; wind turbines and other green initiatives exist not because of environmentalism, but because of economics. “Governor Parry isn’t an environmentalist. He’s doing this because it makes economic sense. So is [Texan oilman] T Boone Pickens. He’s put $10 billion in a 4,000MW wind farm in the Texas panhandle.”

Enjoyed this article? Join 40,000+ subscribers to the ZME Science newsletter. Subscribe now!