“How to build a more just world and save the planet… We should all heed Brown’s advice.”

- Former President Bill Clinton

As fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we have begun investing in energy sources that can last forever. Plan B 4.0 explores both the nature of this transition to a new energy economy and how it will affect our daily lives.

Lester R. Brown is founder and President of Earth Policy Institute. He is considered a pioneer of the concept of environmentally sustainable development. His books have been published in more than forty languages. He has been honored with numerous prizes, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the United Nations Environment Prize, and Japan’s Blue Planet Prize.

Cosponsored by the Program on the Global Environment.

(c) 2008 - Unversity of Chicago. The World Beyond the Headlines series is a collaborative project of the Center for International Studies, the International House Global Voices Program, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Its aim is to bring scholars and journalists together to consider major international issues and how they are covered in the media.

Recorded Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at University of Chicago.