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PRESS CENTER
Reah Janise Kauffman, Vice President
202.496.9290 x 12
rjk (at) earthpolicy.org
Teleconference w/Lester Brown:
“Cutting Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2020”
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
11 AM EDT
CALL-IN: From the U.S.: 1-800-862-9098; International: 1-785-424-1051
Entry Code: "7LESTER"
With Washington grasping at short-sighted and dirty energy policies such as domestic offshore drilling, environmental analyst and author Lester Brown will hold a telephone briefing on Wednesday, July 2nd to present an alternative blueprint to cut carbon emissions enough to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change -- 80 percent by 2020.
Brown, a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipient, says we do not need to go beyond ice melting to see that civilization is in trouble. While political leaders who recognize the need to cut carbon emissions to address global warming ask what is politically feasible, the Earth Policy Institute asks what is necessary. How much and how fast do we have to cut carbon emissions to save the Greenland ice sheet or the glaciers in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, whose ice melt irrigates the wheat and rice fields of China and India during the dry season?
By systematically raising energy efficiency throughout the world economy, by largely replacing fossil fuels with wind, solar, and geothermal energy for electricity and heating, by restructuring transport systems, and by planting billions of trees, we can stabilize climate. This alternative to business as usual, aka "Plan B," also frees us from dependence on imported oil.
"We need to mobilize at wartime speed," said Brown. "Cutting carbon emissions 80 percent by 2020 will not be easy, but it may be the key to saving civilization."
Full Report in pdf
(All images are high resolution.)
Lester R. Brown, Founder and President 
Bio
Bio (short)
Resume
Head shot 1
Head shot 2
Lester Brown in his office
Janet Larsen, Director of Research
Bio
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