Food baskets for year 2050; (Nov. 14, 2009)

I decided to combine and edit four posts into a comprehensive essay that might forecast the world’s agricultural state in the year 2050 as it will be inhabited by 10 billion people. The posts are: The long-term “Revenge of Geography”; “Food BANG, not the Big One”; “The world’s food basket: Africa is heaven for agro-business investments”; and “Africa is targeted to be exclusively the world’s food basket”

We are barely feeding the current world population and millions are dying of famine related malnutrition. In 1960, many developed nations had surpluses of food stuff; this is no longer the case.  Funny Mark Twain said “Buy lands; we are no more manufacturing those kinds of things”. The UN branch for Food and Agriculture Organization predicted that agricultural products will witness increases in prices over 50% by the year 2017 and predicted that famine will be the lot of 70 impoverished States harming 1.2 billion human.

Global problems for water shortages

We are witnessing the era of “Anthropocene” which means man is doing more damages to the environment than nature can stabilize; the main reality to account for is acute shortages in sources of water. “It is man who has the power to create; it is nature that commands to a large extent” said Harold Mackinder in 1904.

The main problems cannot be summarized in population explosion.  Modern problems are exacerbating the conditions. First, just in China and India the number of middle class “well off people” are four times the combined numbers in the USA, Europe, and Japan. These newly created classes in the last two decades demand equal standards of living that the developed nations have been enjoying for a century. Consequently, water has to be diverted from agriculture to urban centers that are fast increasing in numbers and in size.  Huge investments are being spent to building dams, diverting rivers, and constructing thousands of miles of water canals.

Second, most rivers are heavily polluted from mass industrializations, a process that has been going on for many decades. Fertile lands are deteriorating as they are irrigated with toxic and highly saline water.  Third, climatic changes are affecting rain delivery in sufficient amount. Deserts are expanding and sub-terrene water sources are dwindling in numbers and quantities.

Fourth, the USA and Europe are planting agro-energy products that are transformed into non-fossils sources for energy. The EU is shooting for a 10% sufficiency by the year 2010 from these agro sources.  Thus, vast fields of wheat and corn are being converted to agro products rich in sugar contents. This policy might resolve EU internal problems in the short run in several ways: first, instead of subsidizing agriculture for competitive exportation the EU could invest in land development in the large States of Poland and Ukraine; this alternative might enhance the internal food trade with adequate return for the poorer EU member Sates; second, the constant stream of law suits against infringements on Global Free Trade will be reduced; and third, experiments on alternative energy substitutes will be encouraged.

Fifth, the USA and the EU are leasing fertile lands overseas not to produce edible condiments for the famished population but products for their energy substitutes.

Political end games

The main power in the coming decades will reside in the States who control the sources of the major rivers.  China has conquered Tibet because three main rivers take their sources from the Himalaya mountain chains; mainly the Mekong (that flow into the South East), the Indus (that flow in Pakistan), and the Brahmapoutre that flow in India and join the Ganges River.

Thus, if China decided to use water as weapon it can disturb all the States from Pakistan, India, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam. China has already built 86,000 dams along the Blue and Yellow Rivers that take sources on the western plateaus; China has not consulted with the South East countries and has already built four mega dams on the Mekong, including two huge lakes that will take about 10 years to fill in order to generate hydraulic power.

Turkey controls two huge rivers: the Euphrates and the Tiger that flow in Syria and Iraq.  Turkey has been building dams on these rivers without consulting with the southern neighboring States.  Ethiopia is in control of the Nile if it wishes to.  The US has been building dams along rivers that flow into Mexico.

China, Turkey, Russia, USA, and Brazil control sources of major rivers.  Latin America has enough water, except Argentina. The main struggle in the medium-term is who will control the Nile, the Niger, and the Congo Rivers in Africa.

There are four basic alternatives for securing water that can be used concomitantly. First, desalination of Oceans and the towing of icebergs will do for a while but cannot resolve a long-term problem in water shortages.  Second, genetically modified seeds that can withstand many kinds of “natural enemies” may diminish the need for pesticides and herbicides and increase production. Third, leasing or acquiring vast “fertile” lands by foreign agro-businesses in the under-developed States that have shortages in trained manpower for land development, or lacking the technological investment capabilities, or suffering from outdated modern institutions. Four, enacting policies for large displacement of people from mega-polis to near water sources; that alternative will save on huge investment of supplying water to big urban cities and in order to recover sub-terrain naps and natural ecosystems.  This essay will focus on the second and third alternatives.

Genetically modified seeds

Antitrust laws are so far not being applied to the six industries for organically modified seeds that share scientific discoveries and have sole monopoly of 90% of organic seeds.  Monsano, Dow Agrosciences, BASF, Syngena, Bayer, and Dupont have deposited more than 500 patents on genes “adapting to climatic changes”: they are figuring out how to profit from degradation of the environment.  In 2008, Monsato has increased by 35% the prices on organically modified seeds that it has exclusive rights to produce and distribute.  Monsano and Dow Agrosciences are associated to produce in genetically modified wheat seeds that can withstand 8 kinds of “natural enemies” of mainly herbicides and insecticides in year 2010.  Thus, 87% of modified seeds used around the world bear the label Monsano.

The multinational oil companies of BP, Shell, Chevron, and Cargill are linking up with companies of nano-sciences of agro-technologies to transform biological matters such as (agricultural harvest, forests, algae…) into industrial sugar. Sugar is then converting into chemical products and nano-products with high added values. Chemistry linked to oil products could now be adapted to vegetable carbon.  Entire countries such as Madagascar and Angola are now being leased to cultivate modified breeds of harvests.

The scientific counselor to Barak Obama, John Holdren, is encouraging the application of geo-engineering to fighting atmospheric changes.  Among such engineering techniques is sprinkling the atmosphere with nano-particles of sulfates to veil the sunrays.  Monster farms of phytoplankton are created to absorb or capture CO2.

The UN views these geo-engineering projects as purely speculative in nature with unknown risks for collateral damages. A joint Indo-German oceanographic Institute discarded the decision of the Conference of the UN and carried on its project: it “fertilized” a large zone in the Antarctic Ocean by dumping tons of iron sulfates; the microscopic unicellular algae were meant to grow in abundance and capture CO2.  The zooplankton ate the algae and the experiment was not conclusive; this temporary failure is encouraging other multinationals such as Climos Inc. or (Planktos Science) to resume these kinds of projects under the name of “eco-restoration” for substantial financial returns.

Leasing or acquiring vast “fertile” lands by foreign agro-businesses

If you have lands with no water, if you have water and no fertile land, if you have accumulated enough in your Sovereign Fund then the way to go is to invest in foreign fertile lands for agricultural “self-sufficiency”, which means import food at much lower prices.  Japan, South Korea, China, India, and Saudi Arabia are leading these kinds of joint ventures. Many under-developed States with vast “fertile” lands are leased or acquired by foreign agro-businesses.  So far, 30 millions hectares (the size of 30 Lebanon or the size of the Philippines) are already in use for mass agricultural production. China, rich in water and fertile lands, is leading this policy of “getting out of the borders” since 2004.

Africa is the prime target continent because it has four large and long rivers such as the Nile, the Congo, and the Niger Rivers and the lands are barely worked.  The Sudan, Mozambique, and the Democratic Congo are prime targets in the medium-term.

Vast fertile lands are left unproductive for lack of investment and manpower.  Theoretically, we should have win-win situations but the facts are that the contracts of the multinational agro-businesses are not transparent; there are no clauses on specificities that might benefit the population either in technology or land development.

Most of the contracts are barely three pages long and contain no precisions on investors’ obligations toward investing in infrastructures, durable management of the natural resources, or the training of the local peasants for developing small parcels of land and applying the technology.  The President of Earth Policy Institute, Lester Brown, “Essentially, the technologies used by these agro-investments are meant for massive commercial production and not adaptable to the concerned small local farmers.  There is basically no transfer of technology or training. Thus, what the foreign investors are acquiring in lands is not going to feed the local population as we might hope.

Let us consider the case of the oil rich Arab Gulf States: rice is their main staple and it has to be imported in totality. These States imported a third from India and then India had to curtail its exportation of rice due to climatic problems in order to feed its citizens.  These States imported 10% from Thailand (the first exporter of rice in the world) but then Thailand doubled the price of its rice to $1,000 the ton.  How the Arab Gulf States were to counter this difficulty?  Their Sovereign Funds could be invested in rice fields in Thailand and that what they started to do. You could have a win-win situation: there are vast lands in Thailand that are not cultivated; increasing rice production should not hurt Thailand since rice prices are increasing and Thailand needs to secure oil provision.

Instead of purchasing 10% of its need in rice from Thailand, then the Arab Gulf States might increase it to 40%. One happier story: Thailand needs to establish a rice warehouse in the Arab Gulf to distribute rice at affordable prices.  Things should look pretty promising.  Joint-ventures in agro-businesses where Sovereign Funds invest the money and the Thai peasants got to work in jobs they are proficient in should not raise so much fuss: should it? The problem is that internal politics in Thailand want a scapegoat: Arabs buying lands in Thailand; or rice production is a strictly national occupation and should be 100% reserved for citizens (as if the Arab is going to relocate to plant rice in Thailand!); or Thailand is not Africa and we are a developed nation.

Another case is Madagascar, a vast Island in East Africa.  The standard of living has fallen below the one in 1960.  Why Independence pride has to be highly correlated with miseries in the former colonial States?  Major deforestation is the norm in Madagascar: people need to cook their meals! The South Korean Daewoo wanted to lease 1.3 million hectares for 99 years. What it is with this taboo of 99 years lease of lands? Does every investor has in the back of his head to let his grand child witness his greatness and pray for his great spirit? The deal fell apart after the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, fell out of power. Apparently, not much transparency and communication were accompanied to that deal. In the meanwhile cattle thieves “dahalo” are on rampage. Even the tiny Maurice Island acquired lands (10,000 ha) in Mozambique for the island food sufficiency. Ramakrishna Karuturi (the king of rose production in 4 millions hectares) is leasing the hectare for two dollars a year in Ethiopia! Now, there can be no doubt that the Ethiopian government had received a fat bribe for such a lousy deal.

The Congo with Capital Brazzaville is half the size of France with barely 4 million citizens concentrated in the capital and the other city Pointe-Noire on the coast. This African States was a French colony and is rich in minerals and uranium.  It cultivates potatoes.  South Afrikaners who lost 30% of their agricultural lands for redistribution programs to the black citizens want to acquire or lease lands in this Congo; the Agri SA (South Africa) has 1,700 agro-businesses interested in producing soja, sugar cane, and corn. Ten million hectares were literally offered to the Afrikaners (a land stretching 500 by 200 km, twice the size of Switzerland) and its location is not yet decided upon; maybe entire virgin forests might be burned for agriculture. The Agri SA is promising to build agro villages with ready made houses contracted to Israeli firms.  What if the deal demanded that thousands of Congolese be trained to develop and grow lands after two years of working in the Afrikaners’ lands?  This deal is a striking political and ecological scandal because the terms of the deal are fishy and not communicated to the citizens.

Kazakhstan is practically a continent in size and barely 1% of the land is privately owned.  This rich and newly independent State imports 40% of milk, 30% of meat, and 45% of fruits and vegetables. The population is mostly rural. The States lease lands for 49 years.  The State of Kazakhstan has set aside 35,000 square-kilometers to lease to foreign investors but only China is interested. The main States vying for foreign fertile lands are:

South Korea has acquired a total of 3 millions hectares (three times the superficies of the State of Lebanon); it is growing fields in Russia (500,000 ha), Sudan (700,000 ha), Madagascar (1.3 million ha), Mongolia (300,000 ha), Philippines (100,000 ha), and Indonesia (25, 000 ha).  The Korean agency for international cooperation (State owned) is creating private and public enterprises to invest into agro-businesses by loans or direct governmental investments. Leases of fertile lands are for 60 years and an extension of another 40 years. In return, Korea will extend technologies and development planning.  It appears that South Korea is projecting unification with North Korea and the flooding of North Korean refugees soon. South Korea is interested in the “krai of Primorie” in Russia with 2.5 millions of arable land.

China has invested for a total of 2 millions hectares.  It has 1.25 millions in South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos), in Mozambique (800,000 ha), in Australia (45,000), and in Cuba (5,000 ha). China acquired (80,000 ha) in Russia for just $22 millions.

Japan has acquired a total of one million hectares in Philippines (600,000 ha), USA (225,000 ha), and Brazil (100,000 ha).

India has acquired a total of 1.7 millions hectares in Argentina (600,000 ha), Ethiopia (370,000 ha), Malaysia (300,000 ha), Madagascar (250,000 ha), Indonesia (70,000 ha), and in Laos (50,000 ha).  The Indian government has extended loans to 80 agro-businesses to purchase 350,000 ha in Africa.

Saudi Arabia has invested in Indonesia (one million ha), Senegal (500,000 ha), and in Mali (200,000 ha).  The Arab Emirates has invested in Pakistan (325,000 ha), and in Sudan (400,000 ha). Egypt has invested in Uganda (850,000 ha).  Libya has invested in Ukraine (250,000 ha), and Liberia (5,000 ha).  Qatar invested in the Philippines (100,000 ha).

Global Resolutions

Africa is the remaining poorest continent with vast fertile lands and plenty of manpower to exploit for agro-business enterprises. Africa is targeted to be exclusively the world’s food basket in this century. The UN, the EU, economic superpower States, and private institutions and organizations need to step in to plan, organize, administer, inspect, and enforce appropriate deals for the best management and control of food and water resources.

Since the citizens of independent States that have experienced colonialism are weary of camouflaged colonialism in other forms then their governments are circumventing land laws by enacting laws of mixed private enterprises with lease or acquisition contracts that are not transparent to the public. The UN has to step in and write standard contracts leases that preserve peoples rights to training, sustainable resources, technology know-how, human dignity, right to work, right to share in the management and decisions at community levels, and that these contracts supersede what any other two parties agree on that lack the standard rights and responsibilities.  It is unconscionable that “privatization version” to colonizing Africa infiltrate from the windows. The fact is State funds are loaning money to their own agro-businesses to invading African fertile lands. This neo-colonial pact among State and agro-businesses has to be made clear and restrictions be implemented by world communities.  Territories are changing hands and are no longer under the control of the people and peasants.

The UN has to set up a special fund to purchasing organically modified seeds that have proven not to constitute health hazard; it has to limit the exclusive life duration for exploitation by multinationals that are escaping antitrust laws.

The UN is burdened by countless military conflicts that are interrelated with people seeking better life conditions for survival. An independent branch in the UN needs to be established that would link the causative factors that are generating constant conflicts among neighboring States.  Fair share for water resources is a right that supercede which country control the sources of the rivers.

We hope that the world community will pressure these investors to grow food slowly: resuming the old practices of mass production techniques will ruin the remaining land with fertilizers and pesticides.

The world’s food basket: Africa is heaven for agro-business investments; part 2. (Nov. 12, 2009)

Let us plan for the year 2050; most probably earth will be inhabited by 10 billions humans.  We are barely feeding the current world population and millions are dying of famine related malnutrition.  Many under-developed States with vast “fertile” lands are leased or acquired by foreign agro-businesses.  So far, 30 millions hectares (the size of 30 Lebanon or the size of the Philippines) are already in use for mass agricultural production.  Even China, rich in water and fertile lands, is leading this policy of “getting out of the borders”.  There are two main reasons for China investing in agriculture overseas: first, more water is diverted to the thousands of giga-urban centers; second, water is so heavily polluted by heavy industrialization that agriculture is suffering, and third, climatic changes are transforming main wheat fields in the north into semi-desert lands.

Africa is the target continent because it has four large and long rivers such as the Nile, the Congo, and the Niger Rivers.  The Sudan, Mozambique, and the Democratic Congo are prime targets in the medium-term. Vast fertile lands are left unproductive for lack of investment and manpower.  Theoretically, we should have win-win situations but the facts are that the contracts of the multinational agro-businesses are not transparent; there are no clauses on specificities that might benefit the population either in technology or land development. Most of the contracts are barely three pages long and contain no precisions on investors’ obligations toward investing in infrastructures, durable management of the natural resources, or the training of the local peasants for developing small parcels of land and applying the technology.  The President of Earth Policy Institute, Lester Brown, “Essentially, the technologies used by these agro-investments are meant for massive commercial production and not adaptable to the concerned small local farmers.  There is basically no transfer of technology or training. Thus, what the foreign investors are acquiring in lands is not going to feed the local population as we might hope.

Let us consider the case of the oil rich Arab Gulf States: rice is their main staple and it has to be imported in totality. These States imported a third from India and then India had to curtail its exportation of rice due to climatic problems in order to feed its citizens.  These States imported 10% from Thailand (the first exporter of rice in the world) but then Thailand doubled the price of its rice to $1,000 the ton.  How the Arab Gulf States were to counter this difficulty?  Their Sovereign Funds could be invested in rice fields in Thailand and that what they started to do. You could have a win-win situation: there are vast lands in Thailand that are not cultivated; increasing rice production should not hurt Thailand since rice prices are increasing and Thailand needs to secure oil provision.  Instead of purchasing 10% of its need in rice from Thailand, then the Arab Gulf States might increase it to 40%. One happier story: Thailand needs to establish a rice warehouse in the Arab Gulf to distribute rice at affordable prices.  Things should look pretty promising.  Joint-ventures in agro-businesses where Sovereign Funds invest the money and the Thai peasants got to work in jobs they are proficient in should not raise so much fuss: should it? The problem is that internal politics in Thailand want a scapegoat: Arabs buying lands in Thailand; or rice production is a strictly national occupation and should be 100% reserved for citizens (as if the Arab is going to relocate to plant rice in Thailand!); or Thailand is not Africa and we are a developed nation.

Another case is Madagascar, a vast Island in East Africa.  The standard of living has fallen below the one in 1960.  Why Independence pride has to be highly correlated with miseries in the former colonial States?  Major deforestation is the norm in Madagascar: people need to cook their meals! The South Korean Daewoo wanted to lease 1.3 million hectares for 99 years. What it is with this taboo of 99 years lease of lands? Does every investor has in the back of his head to let his grand child witness his greatness and pray for his great spirit? The deal fell apart after the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, fell out of power. Apparently, not much transparency and communication were accompanied to that deal. In the meanwhile cattle thieves “dahalo” are on rampage. Even the tiny Maurice Island acquired lands (10,000 ha) in Mozambique for the island food sufficiency. Ramakrishna Karuturi (the king of rose production in 4 millions hectares) is leasing the hectare for two dollars a year in Ethiopia! Now, there can be no doubt that the Ethiopian government had received a fat bribe for such a lousy deal.

The Congo with Capital Brazzaville is half the size of France with barely 4 million citizens concentrated in the Capital and the other city Pointe-Noire on the coast. This African States was a French colony and is rich in minerals and uranium.  It cultivates potatoes.  South Afrikaners who lost 30% of their agricultural lands for redistribution programs to the black citizens want to acquire or lease lands in this Congo; the Agri SA (South Africa) has 1,700 agro-businesses interested in producing soja, sugar cane, and corn. Ten million hectares were literally offered to the Afrikaners (a land stretching 500 by 200 km, twice the size of Switzerland) and its location is not yet decided upon; maybe entire virgin forests might be burned for agriculture. The Agri SA is promising to build agro villages with ready made houses contracted to Israeli firms.  What if the deal demanded that thousands of Congolese be trained to develop and grow lands after two years of working in the Afrikaners’ lands?  This deal is a striking political and ecological scandal because the terms of the deal are fishy and not communicated to the citizens.

Kazakhstan is practically a continent in size and barely 1% of the land is privately owned.  This rich and newly independent State imports 40% of milk, 30% of meat, and 45% of fruits and vegetables. The population is mostly rural. The States lease lands for 49 years.  The State of Kazakhstan has set aside 35,000 square-kilometers to lease to foreign investors but only China is interested. Europe is not interested in leasing lands in Kazakhstan but China is.  China has already leased 40,000 hectares and planning on increasing its agro-businesses.

Lester Brown, com o apoio do Bradesco, lançou a versão brasileira Plano B 4.0 – Mobilização para salvar a civilização, que será distribuída em universidades, bibliotecas, centros de estudos, ONG’s. E melhor: quem quiser, é só baixar de graça direto do site

Lester Brown propõe estratégias coletivas de mudança, baseadas em três principais estratégias:

- estabilizar o clima e a população;
- erradicar a pobreza;
- restaurar os suportes naturais da natureza, como água, solo e ar.

Ele aconselha: “Se quer fazer alguma coisa, além de transformar seus próprios hábitos, engaje-se! A participação cívica, pressionando os governantes e legisladores, é urgente. Os tomadores de decisão devem ser conscientizados, não há tempo para educarmos somente as crianças e esperarmos uma década para que elas estejam no comando”.

Quer saber mais sobre assunstos relacionados? Entre no Ecoblogs!

fonte: akatu

Next Monday the Council will be joined by Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute and renowned environmentalist. He will be speaking about two pressing issues: climate change and global food insecurity.

Last week, the New York Times‘ Room for Debate blog featured the opinions of six experts about biotech food and its potential to cure world hunger. Before coming to our program with Brown, read what they had to say about ending hunger here.

Envolverde, 20 de outubro de 2009

Lester Brown vem ao Brasil para lançar edição em português do Plano B 4.0, uma proposta de reconstrução da economia global.

Como conduzir a sociedade a uma nova trajetória de crescimento sustentável na velocidade que a crise atual requer? A questão inquieta tanto a céticos quanto entusiastas da sustentabilidade. Às vésperas da Conferência do Clima, em Copenhague, onde será negociado um acordo para frear o aquecimento global, Lester Brown aponta o caminho para formular estratégias coletivas de mudança em seu mais recente livro: Plano B 4.0: Mobilização para salvar a civilização, que será lançado em português no dia 22 de outubro pelas editoras New Content e Ideia Sustentável, com o patrocínio do Bradesco.A edição brasileira está sendo lançada quase que simultaneamente a dos Estados Unidos. No Brasil, haverá um tiragem impressa distribuída para bibliotecas, escolas, universidades, ONGs e centros de estudo. Os conteúdos serão disponibilizados para download gratuito no site www.bradesco.com.br/rsa

“Nosso maior desafio não é apontar quais são os problemas, mas sim buscar soluções. E é isso que Lester Brown faz em seu Plano B 4.0, ao trazer respostas para as grandes questões socioambientais, como as mudanças climáticas. Por compartilhar desse mesmo propósito, nos sentimos motivados a apoiar a publicação do livro no Brasil e, assim, compartilhar essas informações com o maior número de pessoas possível”, afirma Lincoln Cesário Fernandes, gerente de responsabilidade socioambiental do Bradesco.

O caminho proposto pelo autor de Plano B 4.0, baseia-se em três estratégias principais: estabilizar o clima e a população, erradicar a pobreza e restaurar os suportes naturais da natureza, como água, solo e ar. “Lester Brown propõe a cada indivíduo, empresa ou nação responsável um Plano B, real e imediato, para nosso modelo de prosperidade. Não em nome da natureza em si, que de alguma forma sempre sobreviverá, mas do precioso, delicado e ainda incompleto estágio civilizatório que a humanidade atingiu”, afirma Edoardo Rivetti,diretor da New Content.

Brown reforça que o Plano B não se orienta pelo que fizemos no passado, mas pelo que precisamos fazer no futuro. Sua proposta não se baseia no pensamento convencional, até porque foi ele que nos colocou no meio dessa confusão. Pelo contrário, adota um jeito diferente de pensar, uma nova mentalidade, para nos tirar da presente situação. “O Plano B é obviamente ambicioso e, para alguns, impossível”, afirma Brown.

Para colocar esse novo modelo em prática, ele reforça que será necessário um enorme esforço internacional, muito maior e mais complexo do que o do Plano Marshall que ajudou a reconstruir a Europa e o Japão. “Tal iniciativa deve ser tomada na velocidade de uma medida de guerra, ou seja, antes que a deterioração ambiental resulte em declínio econômico, como aconteceu com civilizações antigas que violaram o limiar da natureza e ignoraram seus prazos”, defende.

O autor argumenta ainda que já dispomos das ferramentas e tecnologias para implementar o Plano B. Em seu livro, ressalta experiências bem-sucedidas de mudança em todo o mundo, prontas para serem replicadas, seja na redução do uso de água para irrigação ou na otimização do solo para segurança alimentar, seja ainda no planejamento de cidades mais centradas nos indivíduos, na contenção do desflorestamento, no controle de natalidade ou na inclusão do custo do carbono no preço de produtos.

Fundador do Worldwatch Institute, em 1974, e presidente do Earth Policy Institute desde 2001, Brown ficou conhecido pela série de relatórios “O Estado do Mundo” e também por ser um militante de ideias claras para os grandes desafios ambientais da humanidade. Nesses tempos de aquecimento global, ele tem sido um porta-voz qualificado da transição para uma economia de baixo carbono e interlocutor frequente de líderes políticos em todo o mundo.

“Brown é um homem de ideias coerentes. Há pelo menos uma década, ele defende que persistir no “business as usual” levará a um aumento no número de estados em falência e a um esgotamento dos recursos naturais, colocando sob ameaça a existência humana na terra”, ressalta, Ricardo Voltolini, diretor de Ideia Sustentável.

O que propõe o Plano B

Para Lester Brown, ao insistirmos no modelo tradicional de fazer negócios que ignora as externalidades da atividade econômica no meio ambiente, não colocamos em risco o Planeta, mas a nossa própria sobrevivência. Por isso, propõe uma mobilização global para salvar nossa civilização, baseada em três metas interdependentes: estabilizar o clima e a população, erradicar a pobreza e restaurar os suportes naturais da natureza, como água, solo e ar.

A verdade ambiental

A solução para a construção de uma economia global apta a sustentar o progresso econômico é a criação de um mercado honesto, que diga a verdade ecológica. Para criá-lo, segundo Brown, precisamos reestruturar o sistema tributário, reduzindo os impostos sobre o trabalho e aumentando os sobre as emissões de carbono e em outras atividades ambientalmente destrutivas. É urgente incorporar esses custos indiretos no preço de mercado.

Investimento necessário

Consegue-se colocar em ação o Plano B com um orçamento anual de US$ 187 bilhões. Entre as providências sociais (US$ 77 bilhões), incluem-se educação primária universal, erradicação do analfabetismo, merenda escolar para os 44 países mais pobres, saúde reprodutiva e planejamento familiar, saúde básica universal e disseminação do uso de preservativos. No campo das medidas ambientais (US$ 110 bilhões), destacam-se o plantio de árvores para sequestrar carbono, conter enchentes e conservar o solo, a proteção à biodiversidade e a estabilização dos recursos hídricos. Apenas para efeito de comparação, esse valor corresponde a 13% dos gastos militares globais que supostamente atendem a uma necessidade de defesa da humanidade.

Os três modelos

Para Brown, as mudanças sociais importantes podem ser classificadas em três modelos. Um deles é o da catástrofe, muito apregoado por cientistas, segundo o qual apenas fatos dramáticos e dolorosos levam uma sociedade a rever suas formas de pensar e agir. O segundo se baseia na noção de que uma sociedade só se transforma depois de um longo período de mudanças graduais de pensamento e atitude. E o terceiro considera que toda mudança eficaz decorre de uma combinação de pressão feita por setores ativistas com o apoio de fortes lideranças políticas. O último, segundo o autor, é, de longe, o mais interessante, porque permite gerar mudanças com maior agilidade. Em sua defesa, ele lembra o recente enlace entre as pressões dos movimentos populares contra a emissão de carbono e o ideário do presidente Barack Obama, que resultou, entre outras medidas, na suspensão da construção de novas usinas termoelétricas movidas a carvão nos EUA.

O que podemos fazer

“Se quisermos salvar a civilização, precisamos nos tornar politicamente ativos e isso significa, não apenas votar em eleições, mas também trabalhar em algumas questões importantes. Salvar civilizações não é um esporte para expectadores, todos precisam tomar parte no futuro”, ressalta Brown. Segundo ele, precisamos tratar de uma questão específica, como banir a construção de novas usinas termoelétricas de carvão ou desenvolver um programa de reciclagem na nossa comunidade, ou ainda trabalhar com grupos populacionais para ajudar a estabilizar a população mundial.

Serviço:

O lançamento da edição brasileira de Plano B 4.0: Mobilização para salvar a civilização acontecerá no dia 22 de outubro no MASP a partir das 14h. O evento conta com a participação de Lester Brown que apresentará sua proposta de reestruturação da economia global.

Inscrições pelo e-mail: rsvp@lesterbrown.com.br

(Envolverde/Assessoria)

Picking up where I left off with my last post – thinking of ways to make a personal difference. Below is a quote from worldwatch.org that makes you want to quit beef and become a vegegatarian. (Scroll all the way down.)

BTW, I encourage all readers to go to http://worldwatch.org aka Worldwatch Institute for excellent research and reporting on global warming and other environmental issues. I started reading WW Magazine in 1993. At about the time, I read Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature“.

So while I’m at it, I’d like to recommend Bill McKibben’s “Deep Economy“, the best ‘environmental’ book I’ve read in the past few years. It not only gives you a thorough understanding of the perils of the fossil fuel world we live, but more importantly it provides many ideas and insights on how we could turn the shop around, how we can live comfortably and well, and still save the planet.

And since Worldwatch starts me thinking about Lester Brown (formerly Worldwatch Institute), check out the Earth Policy Institute, and get a copy of “Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization” – a close 2nd place on my Green Reading List. I haven’t come across another book that deserves such a title. You will find (maybe not all but enough) solutions to our problems which – after the initial cold sweats and panic attacks – will make you hopeful.

Okay, enough of the reading list. Here is quote from WorldWatch (you can subscribe to these emails on their website):

Livestock Emissions: Still Grossly Underestimated?

The environmental impact of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to contributors to this month’s World Watch magazine. Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change,” found that livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

ngopost.org

Lester Brown’s book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, asks whether we can cut carbon emissions fast enough to save the Greenland ice sheet, whether we can close coal-fired power plants fast enough to save the glaciers in the Himalayas, and whether we can we stabilise population by lowering birth rates before nature takes over and halts population growth by raising death rates. The political imperative looms ever larger as finite resources — long exploited as though they are in infinite supply — become exhausted. Brown makes reference, for example, to Saudi Arabia which, in early 2008, announced that it would no longer be self-sufficient in wheat because the non-replenishable aquifer it has been pumping for irrigation was largely depleted. Production will cease entirely in 2016, meaning a population of 30 million will need to import all its wheat. The problem of over-pumping is far more acute in India where 175 million Indians are being fed with grain produced from wells that are running dry, and in China where 130 million are affected. Meanwhile, with the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melting at an accelerating pace, sea level rises are set to inundate much of the Mekong Delta, which produces half of the rice in Viet Nam, the world’s second-ranking rice exporter.

Brown observes that food shortages led to the demise of earlier civilisations such as the Sumerians and the Mayans, and that dwindling food supplies may be the undoing of twenty-first century civilisation as well. “It is decision time,” says Brown. “We can stay with business as usual and watch our economy decline and our civilisation unravel, or we can adopt Plan B and be the generation that mobilises to save civilisation.”

After writing about celebrities in the family, it seems I may have taken a rather blasé look at my grandmother’s generation’s biggest celebrity, and her cousin, Paul Brown. That was never the intention. 
When I was a teenager, I met the football great. At that time, he seemed rather overrated to me. What did I know? I was and still am the family nerd. Baseball, not football, was my sport of choice, and youthful ignorance won the day.
The day cousin Paul died, I was on Cape Cod with my first wife and the radio station WBZ in Boston made the announcement. I remember at that moment thinking, how important it was to begin doing something with our family’s story. It took me another ten years to finally get around to it. Again, youthful ignorance won the day.
My lack of interest truly disappoints me. How many families can claim to have the first coach of an NFL team and the founder of another in their family?

Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 – August 5, 1991) was a coach in American football and a major figure in the development of the National Football League. A seminal figure in football history, Brown is considered the “father of the modern offense,” with many claiming that he ranks as one of if not the greatest of football coaches in history. Such claims are backed by significant evidence: Brown dominated as a gridiron general on every major level — high school, college, and professional.

Paul Brown’s parents, Lester Brown and Ida Belle Sherwood-Brown

Born in Norwalk, Ohio, Brown’s family moved to Massillon when he was nine. His father Lester, a dispatcher for the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad, was described as “very meticulous, serious-minded and highly-disciplined,” all of which characterized Brown’s later approach to coaching. Brown graduated from Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio in 1925, having played varsity quarterback in the wake of Harry Stuhldreher (one of the University of Notre Dame’s legendary Four Horsemen).

High school and college coaching career

Enrolling at Ohio State University as a freshman quarterback, Brown (also known as Bruno/Pot) found his 145-pound frame would not stand the rigors of major college football, and transferred to Miami University in Ohio, losing a year of eligibility in the process. Under Coach Chester Pittser, Brown played two years and was named to the All-Ohio small college second team by the AP at the end of the 1928 season. In 1930, he graduated from Miami with a B.A. in Education. He would complete his academic career in 1940 when he received an M.A. in Education from Ohio State University.

As his academic credentials indicate, Brown was as much a teacher as he was a coach. He qualified for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1930, but he had married Katie Kester, his “high school sweetheart”, in 1929 and with the coming of the Great Depression, he needed employment. His coaching career began in 1930 when he was hired as a teacher/coach at Severn School, in Severna Park, Maryland, at the time a Naval Academy preparatory.

An infant Paul Brown

Washington High School Tigers

Tasting success with a 16-1-1 mark in two seasons at Severn, Brown gave up a brief attempt at law school in 1932 to become at age 23 the head football coach of his hometown Massillon Washington High School Tigers. In his nine years at Massillon Brown posted an 80-8-2 record which included a 35-game winning streak. After his first three years, he had improved the fortunes of the Tigers, but still had been unable to defeat the team’s bitter rival, Canton McKinley High School, losing all three meetings by at least fifteen points per game.

Brown not only ended that frustrating losing streak, but also won the next six games with McKinley, and an overall total of 58 of the next 60 contests, tying one, and was voted to six straight Ohio poll high school football championships. (1935 through 1940) for Massillon. The Tigers outscored their opposition 2,393 to 168 during those six years. The 1940 team outscored its opponents 477 to 6, with the lone score against them made by Canton McKinley. During this period, Brown’s achievements also helped build a new stadium for the high school that seated 20,000 people, and drew crowds that surpassed every football program in Ohio except Ohio State University.

Brown had achieved this success by implementing a system at Massillon based on techniques developed by Dr. John B. “Jock” Sutherland, head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Sutherland had played professional football for the pioneer Massillon Tigers club when Brown was a boy and had gone on to success as a coach. Brown planned every phase of his program, detailing practice schedules, assigning assistant coaches (which he dubbed “position coaches”) specific duties, and installing his entire system in Massillon’s junior high schools so that players would already know his system when they reached high school.

Ohio State Buckeyes

With avid support from influential groups including the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association and future Purdue University head coach Jack Mollenkopf of Toledo Waite High School, Brown moved into the college ranks by becoming head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes on January 14, 1941. Under Brown, the Buckeyes went 18-8-1 (1941-43). Brown’s players were known for speed, intelligence, and contact; his teams for execution and fundamentals; and he was dubbed “Precision Paul” at Ohio State.

In his first season at Ohio State Brown went 6-1-1, losing to Northwestern University and their running back Otto Graham, and tying Michigan. The Buckeyes tied for second place in the Western Conference, finished 13th in the AP poll, and Brown was voted fourth place on balloting for National Coach of the Year behind Frank Leahy, Bernie Bierman, and Earl Blaik.

Lester & Ida Belle Brown at their Massillon home.

The following year, despite losing 18 lettermen to graduation and to military service in World War II, Brown led the Buckeyes to the university’s first National championship, using a team of 3 seniors, 16 juniors, and 24 sophomores. Among his players were senior Les Horvath and four former Massillon players, two of whom (Lin Houston and Tommy James) would play for the Cleveland Browns. The only loss in 1942 was on the road to Wisconsin in a game that came to be known as the “Bad-Water Game,” because most of the team came down with dysentery from unsanitary water during their travel to Madison by railroad.

Brown had recruited what was reputedly the finest freshman team in Ohio history in 1942 but lost virtually all of them to military service. In 1943 Ohio State was handicapped when the school affiliated itself with the U.S. Army’s ASTP officer training, which did not allow its trainees to participate in varsity sports, while schools such as Michigan and Purdue became part of the Navy’s V-12 program, which did. Although the Big Ten promulgated a special wartime exemption in 1943 allowing freshmen to play varsity football, Ohio State found itself in competition against older and larger teams (both military and college) featuring players such as Elroy Hirsch. The 1943 “Baby Bucks” had only five returning players and one starter from the national champion team, six from the 1942 freshman team, and 33 17-year-old freshmen, going 3-6.

After Brown was re-classified 1-A in February 1944, he was commissioned April 12, 1944, as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the United States Navy.[6] He served at the Great Lakes Naval Station as head coach of its Bluejacket football team, which competed against other service teams and college programs, putting together a mark of 15-5-2 during the final two years of World War II. One of those five losses was to Ohio State on October 9, 1944.

After the war, despite still being Ohio State’s head coach in absentia, Brown chose instead to go to Cleveland as part-owner, vice president, general manager and head coach for Arthur B “Mickey” McBride’s entry in the upstart All-America Football Conference. He signed his contract February 8, 1945, while still in the Navy. A name-the-team poll taken in the Cleveland Plain Dealer initially yielded the nickname “Panthers.” However, Brown found out that the “Panthers” name had previously belonged to a semipro team in Cleveland with a long history of losing. At his suggestion, the team sponsored another name-the-team contest which resulted in the name “Brown Bombers,” after heavyweight champion Joe Louis. The name was quickly shortened to “Browns,” which led to speculation that the team was named after Paul Brown himself–a myth which persists to this day.

Until 1951 Brown retained an interest in coaching the Buckeyes. Despite his success as a professional head coach, he let it be known following the resignation of Wes Fesler that he would entertain an offer to return to Ohio State, and he received an immediate show of strong support from many of the same organizations and people who had supported him in 1940. However Brown had also alienated many of his supporters within the Buckeye alumni ranks for failing to return to the coaching position reserved for him at the end of World War II, and within the athletics department by signing Buckeye players, Lou Groza chief among them, to professional contracts before their college eligibility had ended. Brown strenuously denied breaking any rules, claiming that the Browns were allowed to sign those players because they had all completed World War II military service and their college classes had already graduated, as allowed by the rules then in place. Although he interviewed with the university’s athletic board on January 27, 1951, with tumultuous campus support, the board unanimously rejected Brown in favor of Woody Hayes, who was unanimously endorsed by the board of trustees.

Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio

Professional leagues
Cleveland Browns

While the AAFC lasted only four seasons, the Browns served as the gold standard for the league, winning all four championships and losing only four games during the league’s four-year existence

Brown put together the most extensive player recruitment network that had ever been seen in pro football at the time. The great majority of the early Browns teams came from Massillon, Ohio State and Great Lakes. One key move came when he tapped Otto Graham, a single-wing tailback during his days at Northwestern University, as his quarterback, providing the team with a signal caller who would lead the team to the league title game in each of his 10 seasons. In addition, Brown ignored the gentlemen’s agreement that barred African-American players from the league, adding future Pro Football Hall of Famers Marion Motley and Bill Willis.

Following the merger between the NFL and AAFC, the Browns, along with the San Francisco 49ers and the first Baltimore Colts franchise, moved to the NFL in 1950. Critics had predicted that the overall weakness of the AAFC would expose the Browns. However, in their very first official NFL game, the Browns dismantled the two-time defending champion Philadelphia Eagles 35-10, putting up 487 yards of total offense, 346 of them in the air. They won the NFL Championship in their first year, defeating the Rams in the title game on December 24 on a last-minute field goal by Lou Groza. The Browns went on to appear in the next five title games, winning back-to-back titles in 1954 and 1955.

Brown was a great innovator during his time in Cleveland. He was the first to use intelligence tests to judge players, establish a game film library, instruct players in a classroom setting, use a radio transmitter to communicate with players on the field, and install face masks on helmets. Another innovation was the use of “messenger guards” to relay plays from the sidelines after the radio proved problematic due to the technology then available. The offense directed by Graham was the predecessor of the West Coast offense made famous by Bill Walsh, a protégé of Brown.

Michael & Paul Brown, circa 1986

He was also a person known for his stubborn approach to criticism. In 1950, Eagles head coach Greasy Neale dismissed the Browns’ shredding of his Eagles’ vaunted defense in the season opener by saying, “All they do is pass the ball.” In the team’s subsequent meeting a few months later, the Browns set an NFL record that still stands by attempting no passes in a 13-7 win over the Eagles.

By 1959, Brown was respected enough in the NFL that efforts were made to draft him for the league’s commissionership, which was vacant following the death of Bert Bell. Brown declined, and Pete Rozelle was eventually chosen.

Fired

Brown was fired as coach on January 9, 1963 by majority owner, Art Modell, who had purchased the club in 1961 and looked to take more control over the team. Controversy developed over the timing of the decision, coming in the midst of a local newspaper strike that limited discussion of the move. One comment from a local journalist later noted the move was akin to the toppling of the Terminal Tower, then Cleveland’s tallest building.

The relationship, which had never been warm, had continued to deteriorate because Brown felt Modell interfered too much in personnel matters. The team’s previous two owners, McBride and David Jones, gave Brown complete control over the football side of the operation.

Shortly after Modell bought control, Brown privately made a huge trade with the Washington Redskins in December 1961 without Modell’s knowledge. Brown’s deal secured Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis, the star running back from Syracuse University. However, the trade marked the beginning of the end of his Cleveland career and turned tragic when Davis developed leukemia during his first training camp in 1962. The feud itself was exacerbated when Brown chose not to play Davis, despite assurances from doctors that Davis could withstand the physical demands of NFL action. Modell saw no harm in playing Davis, with his financial investment obviously a consideration in his thinking. Davis would never play in a professional game, dying of the disease on May 18, 1963.

Modell was also concerned that Brown’s old-school disciplinarianism wasn’t suited to the team’s younger players, such as Jim Brown.

In exile after more than 30 years of coaching, Brown spent the next five years away from the sidelines, never once attending a Browns contest. While he was secure financially, earning $82,500 annually for the final five years of his contract as well as retaining approximately six percent of the team, Brown’s frustration grew with each passing year, later recalling, “It was terrible. I had everything a man could want: leisure, enough money, a wonderful family. Yet with all that, I was eating my heart out.” Because Brown was still receiving his annual salary from the Browns and liked to golf, it was said in jest that only two men in the country made more money at golf than he did: Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

Just months after his dismissal, he was rumored to be part of an ownership group to buy the Philadelphia Eagles, but no deal was ever officially signed. Then, in May 1966, Brown sold his stake in the Browns and traveled with Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes to make a presentation on behalf of Cincinnati for an American Football League franchise.

Cincinnati Bengals

On September 26, 1967, Brown officially returned to football as principal owner, general manager, and coach of the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL’s rival American Football League. The team would join the NFL with the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. He would coach the team for eight seasons, leading the team to three playoff berths, including one in the team’s third year of operation in 1970. In each of those seasons, as well as a number of preseason clashes, Browns’ Bengals took on his former Browns team, reigniting the bitter rivalry between Brown and Modell. Brown was criticized for failing to shake Browns’ coach Collier’s hand after the first Browns/Bengals games in 1970.

Brown stepped down as coach on January 1, 1976, but remained as team president. Under him, the Bengals made two trips to the Super Bowl, losing both games to Bill Walsh ’s San Francisco 49ers. Following his death in 1991 of complications from pneumonia Brown was succeeded by his son Mike as Bengals’ team president.

Ironically, Walsh, who was a Cincinnati Bengals assistant for seven seasons under Brown, was passed over in favor of Bill “Tiger” Johnson when Brown retired in 1975. In a 2006 interview, Walsh claimed that during his tenure with the Bengals, Brown “worked against my candidacy” to be a head coach anywhere in the league. “All the way through I had opportunities, and I never knew about them,” Walsh said. “And then when I left him, he called whoever he thought was necessary to keep me out of the NFL.” Michael Lewis confirmed Walsh’s argument (cf. “The Blind Side,” pp. 96-7, W.W. Norton, 2006): “Brown had several times refused other NFL teams permission to interview Walsh for their head coaching jobs, without bothering to mention their interest to Walsh. Instead Brown had told Walsh that he didn’t think he’d ever make a good NFL head coach.”

Paul & Mary Bown, Ilene Wright, and Scott Truman at one of the Brown Family Reunions in the mid 1980’s

Honors

Brown was honored in 1967 by his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In addition to that accolade, two stadiums bear his name: Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in Massillon, and Paul Brown Stadium, current home of the Bengals.

Brown’s first wife, Kathryn “Katie” Brown, died in 1969 and in 1973 he married his former secretary, Mary Rightsell. He died in Cincinnati on August 5, 1991, and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Massillon, Ohio.

From the Newspapers

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BROWN REMEMBERED AS PIONEER, INNOVATOR
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Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)-August 6, 1991
Author: CHUCK HEATON PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

Art Modell, the man who fired Paul Brown as general manager and coach of the Browns in January 1963, said yesterday he was saddened by the death of the football giant.

“Despite our differences I regarded him as a man who was great for professional football,” Modell said. “He was an innovator and a pioneer in the game.

“I look back and am amazed at what he did in the early going. So many things that have happened for the good of the game are the result of his vision. He was years ahead of the others.

“He even won in service football.”

Brown was fired after a 7-6-1 season in 1962, but that record was not the reason for the dismissal. It was a personality clash of two strong-willed men and Brown could not reconcile himself to a hands-on owner after directing every aspect of the club from its inception in 1946.

The breakup was characterized by bitter feelings for years, but the passage of time mellowed both men. They never became close friends, but they got back together to some extent at NFL meetings and social gatherings at those huddles.

“We got closer some years back,” Modell said. “We never became bosom buddies to the point of playing gin rummy together on Saturday nights, but we did get closer.

“Paul was a conservative and I lean that way sometimes. So we were on the same side of the fence at many NFL meetings.

“We were on the same side on the merger of the AFL and the NFL alignment. We got, I believe, a new respect for each other with the passage of time.”

Modell recalled that he was instrumental in bringing Brown back into football through the franchise granted to the Cincinnati Bengals. He OK’d placing another pro team in the state.

“I worked with Gov. Jim Rhodes on this,” Modell said. “If it wasn’t for me I don’t believe he would have been back in the game. And the rivalry with the Bengals has become a very good one.

“This has been one of my proudest achievements.”

As soon as he was informed of Brown’s death, Modell ordered his staff to have a moment of silence in memory of Brown at last night’s exhibition game between the Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Many other NFL owners, coaches and players expressed similar sentiments when they learned of Brown’s death. Accolades swept in from all parts of the nation.

Lin Houston and Tommy James, both of whom played for Brown at Massillon, Ohio State and the Browns, were about to tee off at Brookside Country Club in Canton when they received the news.

“I wouldn’t have played for him at all those places if I didn’t like and respect him,” said James, a defensive back. “We had a few differences, but he treated me just fine. He always told us football was secondary to an education.”

Houston, who spent part of his years with the Browns as a “messenger guard,” running in plays, said, “I know that nobody lives for ever, but this was a real loss.

“I spent 13 years under Paul. I regard him as a super coach. He taught a lot of coaches how this game is played.”

Fellow Hall of Famer Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said that Brown “pretty much shaped my coaching philosophy. No one had more influence on me than he had. He was the first IBM coach. He used the briefcase and the hat.

“He brought organization into pro football. We thought we had to perfect our defense to the point they perfected their offense.”

When Lou Groza, who had spent a year at Ohio State, came out of the U.S. Army in World War II, Brown signed him as a place-kicker and offensive tackle. Known as the Toe, Groza is in the Hall of Fame.

“We had a good relationship,” said Groza, now an insurance executive. “When I had a problem I could go directly to him. He always has kept track of his former players. Paul was a tough disciplinarian and a fine organizer and got good players and good assistant coaches.”

Brown used to describe Mike McCormack as “the finest offensive lineman I ever coached.” McCormack had an equally high opinion of the coach.

“We’ve lost a real giant of the game,” he said. “He was such a great innovator and at his best when the game was kind of teetering.

“Remember how he was severely criticized for calling the plays? Now there isn’t a level of football in which the coach doesn’t do this.”

McCormack said he last saw Brown at the NFL meetings in Hawaii in March. “We had what must have been a 40-minute talk,” he said. “I’m so glad for that.”

Miami coach Don Shula played for Brown and as a player at John Carroll spent much time watching Brown’s teams.

“With the passing of Paul Brown, football has lost one of the great contributors to the game,” Shula said. “I feel privileged to have played for him and to have worked for him for over 15 years on the league competition committee. He had a profound impact on my development as a coach.”

Former Browns and Cincinnati coach Forrest Gregg remembered that Brown gave him a second opportunity to coach in the NFL. “I will never forget that and will always appreciate that,” Gregg, now athletic director at Southern Methodist, said. “I really respected the man. He had a wonderful eye for talent.”

MARION MOTLEY, Browns fullback, 1946 to 1953 – “He was such an innovator. You know, he came up with the split end, and he was the first to move the halfbacks around so that the defense had to move with them. Everyone else just followed him.”

TAYLOR SMITH, president of the Atlanta Falcons – “He and George Halas (late founder of the Chicago Bears) were like the fathers of the NFL. He is one of the true greats of all time in the history of the NFL.”

MICHAEL R. WHITE, Cleveland mayor – “The game of football has lost one of its giants. Paul Brown, probably more so than any other individual, is responsible for transforming the game of football into the popular national sport that we enjoy today. He was an innovator, a competitor unlike any other the sport has seen. Because of his special significance to Cleveland, I urge all residents to join me in extending condolences to his family and friends.”

JOHN WOOTEN, Browns lineman, 1959-1967 – “He was such an outstanding technician. With that I mean the head, the feet, the steps. His game and his knowledge of the game was unbelievable. He was so far ahead as far as teaching and the fundamentals of the game. Other people were working just during the season. He was working all year round.”

BILL (TIGER) JOHNSON, former Bengals head and assistant coach – “It’s not a happy day and it is difficult for me. The things I remember most are when I was with the 49ers as a player and coach. The Browns were always our biggest rival and I always placed Paul above everyone. He was untouchable, an idol, in a position of reverence. He was all those years bigger than life. And none of that changed years later when I went to work for him. He was forever a leader in our profession.”

WEEB EWBANK, former New York Jets and Baltimore Colts head coach, an assistant with Brown at Great Lakes and at Cleveland – “This is very hard for me. Our families were so close. My wife, Lucy, and his (first) wife, Katie, often took long walks together. I meant to call him last week but could not get through. Paul was to be my presenter at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but that was the year his son, Robin, died (1978). He was one of the greatest as a man and a coach. He was a gentleman and a wonderful friend.”

JOHN PONT, longtime college coach and a charter member of Miami University’s “Cradle of Coaches” like Brown – “He was a good friend. I know a great deal will be said of his football and innovative contributions and what he did for and with his players. When I first started coaching in 1956, I went to the Browns’ camp in Hiram, Ohio. I was a rookie coach, but he was one of the most gracious and courteous individuals I ever met. He always had a kind word and a smile. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He had very strong convictions and, throughout his life, he did not change them.”

GERRY FAUST, former coach at Cincinnati Moeller High School, Notre Dame and now coach at University of Akron – “He and his wife Mary treated me first class when I was a high-school coach even though he had no reason to do that. He was a great man and I will miss him.”

JACK CLARY, Brown’s official biographer – “Personally, I am saddened. I lost a dear friend, the finest person next to my father I have ever known. He was a wise and compassionate man. The game itself should be saddened. He was probably the wisest man in the game today who is responsible for the game reaching the heights it has.”

BOOMER ESIASON, Bengals quarterback – “When I was a rookie, I got a chance to sit next to him on the bus on the way to a game. He said to me, ‘Boomer, don’t ever forget the people who came before you and made football the game it is today.’

===============================================
APPRECIATION
PAUL BROWN ‘ALWAYS HAD A PURPOSE FOR WHAT HE SAID’: WINNING
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Washington Post-August 6, 1991
Author: Leonard Shapiro, Washington Post Staff Writer

Frank Ryan has a doctorate in mathematics, has been an athletic director at Yale and is now a vice president at Rice University. But even now he cringes at some of his most memorable classroom experiences of all, sitting in a darkened room before practice as Paul Brown, his coach with the Cleveland Browns, dissected film of quarterback Ryan’s performance the previous day

“He laid you bare naked in front of the whole world,” Ryan recalled yesterday. “You’d be there, he’d stop the projector and put the lights on and look right through you, telling you how badly you had screwed something up. Everyone hated those sessions, but he always had a purpose for what he said, and no one ever made the same mistake twice.”

Brown, maybe the greatest coach in the history of professional football, died yesterday at age 82 at his suburban Cincinnati home from complications caused by pneumonia {Obituary, Page B4}. He never retired from the game he loved, still active as part-owner, vice president and general manager of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Brown was remembered yesterday as one of the game’s innovators, a genuine football genius who won and won big at every level, from a brilliant high school coaching career in Massillon, Ohio, where they named a stadium after him, to a national championship at Ohio State in 1942, to four straight titles in the old All-America Conference with the team he started, the Cleveland Browns, to three NFL championships and seven Eastern Conference titles.

After being dismissed as coach by new owner Art Modell in 1963 despite a record of 168-68-8, Brown went to football exile before returning in 1967 to found and coach the expansion Bengals of the American Football League. After the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, the Bengals won the AFC Central that first year, the earliest an expansion team has ever won a division championship. He coached the Bengals to an 11-3 record in 1975, his last year on the field before becoming a full-time general manager as well as a powerful force in the league.

Brown will be remembered for producing a long line of head coaches who either played or coached for him, among them Weeb Ewbank, Don Shula, Blanton Collier, Bill Walsh, Otto Graham and Mike McCormack, and for the innovations he brought to the game. For example, he was the first to use “messenger guards” to get his plays to his quarterback and to have a printed playbook.

“When I was inducted into the Hall of Fame {in 1984}, Paul Brown presented me and gave me a copy of my first playbook,” said McCormack, an offensive lineman under Brown in Cleveland for nine seasons. “When I first came into the league with the old New York Yankees in 1951, they would give you a secretary’s shorthand notebook and you took your own notes. Not Paul. He had it all there for you.”

Brown called all the plays for his quarterbacks, including the great Graham. McCormack recalled playing against the New York Giants in a game almost halted when fans spilled onto the field in the final seconds: “The referees called us back from the locker room to finish it. Our offense went out. Twelve guys. Even though we were only kneeling down with the ball, Paul wanted the messengers out there.”

Brown was responsible for drafting Jim Brown out of Syracuse and setting up the schemes that made him the most feared runner in the game. He paired Brown with Bobby Mitchell, now assistant general manager of the Washington Redskins, and that combination was virtually impossible to contain.

“Paul Brown and Jim Brown respected each other,” McCormack said. “I was at a dinner honoring Paul a few years ago in Dayton, really the first reunion between Paul and Jim. Jim got up and said to Paul, ‘Everyone always said you and I had problems, but no one ever quoted me about that, and no one ever asked me.’ “

Added Ryan: “I think Jimmy was a real challenge to Paul. He treated Jim a little different than the rest of us. He didn’t dress him down in the meetings. He’d only criticize Jim when he figured Jim knew he knew anyway. But he knew how to handle everyone. . . .

“I only played for him one year. . . . He even called the plays in practice. So he let me do it {once}. I got it in there and he didn’t say a word. But from then on, he always knew that if I made a mistake, it was always better to let me correct it right away. He learned from it.

“In games, he’d call plays I never even thought about calling, and they always worked. I would come back to the bench and tell my teammates, ‘Can you believe that call?’ He was always one step ahead of the defense, always thinking ahead.

“One of the most wonderful days of my life happened a few years after I stopped playing. I was in Washington then and he was bringing the Bengals in to play the Redskins. I called him to try and meet him at the hotel. I got him on the phone and said, ‘This is Frank Ryan.’ He said, ‘You mean my Frank Ryan.’ That meant so much to me. It touches me to this day.

PAUL BROWN’S COACHING CAREER……

Year……Team………….W-L-T…….Pct.

1941-43…Ohio State……18-8-1…… .685

1946-49…Cleveland*……47-4-3…… .898

1950……Cleveland…….10-2-0…… .833

1951……Cleveland…….11-1-0…… .917

1952……Cleveland……..8-4-0…… .667

1953……Cleveland…….11-1-0…… .917

1954……Cleveland……..9-3-0…… .750

1955……Cleveland……..9-2-1…… .792

1956……Cleveland……..5-7-0…… .417

1957……Cleveland……..9-2-1…… .792

1958……Cleveland……..9-3-0…… .750

1959……Cleveland……..7-5-0…… .583

1960……Cleveland……..8-3-1…… .708

1961……Cleveland……..8-5-1…… .607

1962……Cleveland……..7-6-1…… .536

1968……Cincinnati……3-11-0…… .214

1969……Cincinnati…….4-9-1…… .321

1970……Cincinnati…….8-6-0…… .571

1971……Cincinnati……4-10-0…… .286

1972……Cincinnati…….8-6-0…… .571

1973……Cincinnati……10-4-0…… .714

1974……Cincinnati…….7-7-0…… .500

1975……Cincinnati……11-3-0…… .786

……….NFL Totals…166-100-6…… .621

POSTSEASON

1946-49*..Cleveland……..5-0-0….. 1.000

1950-75…Cle./Cin………4-8-0…… .333

*-All-America Conference.

BROWN’S INNOVATIONS

Used intelligence tests as a hint to players’ learning potential.

Used notebooks and classroom techniques extensively.

Used complete film clip statistical studies, which he used to grade

his players.

Used guards as messengers in calling the plays from the sideline.

Perfected defense that could counteract a pattern passing attack.

Kept players and coaches at a hotel the night before a game.

Source: Cincinnati Bengals

Below US ecologist Lester Brown explains the key elements of his newest version of his book Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.

You can download the first version of Plan B from the Earth Policy Institute website for free.

The Plan advocates cutting 80% of emissions by 2020. He argues the kind of transition is necessary, and completely possible with the present industrial capacity of the world today, if there is the political will to act.

In one example, he points out that coal amounts to 40% of energy today. To replace coal-fired power with wind power we would need to build 1.5 million wind towers in a decade. Sound like a big ask? Not when the world produces 65 million cars every year.

I also endorse his comments on stabilising population growth – there is no way to do this without eradicating poverty worldwide. Ending poverty cannot be separated from genuine ecological aims.

Intervention introductive de Lester Brown, président du Earth Policy Institute et parrain des Assises du développement durable.

On June 5th, we celebrate World Environment Day!

Every year with this event, the United Nations intend to increase people’s awareness about the environment and to stimulate the attention and the political action towards it.

Moreover, this year, thanks to the well-known french fotographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and to the famous french producer Luc Besson, we will enjoy the free presentation of “HOME“, the most awaited environmental movie of the year. It will be showed on the screens of more than 70 countries as weel as on the Internet, on DVD and on television.

“HOME” presents a balance of the Earth’s state seen from the sky and intends to raise consciousness about its situation and about the environment’s deterioration.

In order to be scientifically irreproachable, the movie was presented to Al Gore, the US vice president and Peace Noble Prize, and to the US environmentalist Lester Brown, who brought precisions.

Four channels have already been prepared on YouTube -in french, english, spanish and german–, and an arabic one will be launched thanks to the Al Jazirah channel. Also, begining on June 5th, everyone will be able to download the movie for free.

Enjoy this event with your kids and help to stimulate the next generations’ awareness about the Earth’s future. 

Le 5 juin, c’est la Journée Mondiale de l’Environnement!

Chaque année à cette occasion, les Nations Unies cherche à sensibiliser le monde sur l’environnement et à développer les actions politiques à ce sujet.

Et cette année, les moyens mis en place sont encore plus exceptionnels! Le 5 juin, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, photographe de renommée internationale, et Luc Besson, producteur qu’on ne présente plus, projetteront gratuitement sur les écrans de plus de 70 pays ainsi que sur internet, à la télevisión (sur France 2) et en DVD, le film “HOME“.

“HOME” présente un bilan de l’état de notre planète vue du ciel et cherche à créer une prise de conscience sur sa situation et sur la détérioration de l’environnement.

Pour être scientifique irréprochable, le film a été soumis à Al Gore, viceprésident américain et Prix Noble de la Paix, et à l’environnementaliste américain Lester Brown, qui y ont apporté leurs précisions.

Quatre canaux de diffusion ont été préparés sur YouTube -en français, anglais, espagnol et allemand- et bientôt en arabe grâce à la chaîne Al Jazirah, et le film pourra être librement téléchargé à partir du 5 juin.

Profitez de cet évènement très spécial avec vos enfants et aidez ainsi à sensibiliser les futures générations sur l’avenir de notre planète.

À ne pas manquer!

Le 5 juin: notre grand rendez-vous avec la planète!

http://www.home-2009.com

Have you heard of Lester Brown or read any of his articles? If not, do yourself a favour and go here. Brown is an American environmentalist and prolific author who has been saying for ages that the biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises. He’s no crackpot. He has a degree in agricultural science. He’s toughed it out in India where he learnt about food/population issues. He’s worked for the US Government and, in the 1970s, founded the Worldwatch Institute.

Now, one of his articles has been just been published in Scientific American and the title is ominous – “Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization”. (I can give you the short answer: YES).  It’s scary reading but let me give you the key concepts. Then go off and read his article.

• Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos
• Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees
• Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production
• Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three environmental factors, a series of government collapses could threaten the world order

Brown says: “Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy—most important, falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures—forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.” And here are some more sobering stats:

• In six of the past nine years, world grain production has fallen short of consumption, forcing a steady drawdown in stocks of grain. There are now only 62 days of grain stock in reserve.
• But world grain prices in the spring and summer of 2008 climbed to the highest level ever.

Hungry people start protesting in the streets when they can’t afford basic food supplies and governments start to teeter. We’ve already seen food riots in Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cameroon. Troops had to open fire in Somalia when people rioted over high food prices. In Africa, prices of some staple foods have increased more than 50%. I’ve been seeing articles recently predicting food riots in the United States. Heck, even scientists are jumping up and down warning about impending food shortages given predictions that food consumption will jump 50% by 2030 as the world population exceeds 8.3bn. One scientist says: “There is a significant likelihood that, without investing in the science to deliver higher crop yields, we will not have the kinds of food levels we need to ensure food security.”

So when nation states can no longer provide food security, then you have a situation where law and order breaks down and civil unrest takes over. And one of the biggest issues our world faces is rapidly falling water tables. 70% of the world’s freshwater is used for irrigation of crops and rainfall is not refilling irrigation wells fast enough. And so water shortages will result in food shortages. China’s wheat crop, for example, which is the world’s largest, has declined by 8% since it peaked at 123 million tons in 1997. Half of India’s wells have dried up already.

And here’s the bit in the article that really freaked me out: “Topsoil is eroding faster than new soil forms on perhaps a third of the world’s cropland. This thin layer of essential plant nutrients, the very foundation of civilization, took long stretches of geologic time to build up, yet it is typically only about six inches deep. Its loss from wind and water erosion doomed earlier civilizations.“

So what’s the answer? Brown says: “Since the current world food shortage is trend-driven, the environmental trends that cause it must be reversed. To do so requires extraordinarily demanding measures, a monumental shift away from business as usual—what we at the Earth Policy Institute call Plan A—to a civilization-saving Plan B.” And what is Plan B?

• cut carbon emissions by 80% from their 2006 levels by 2020
• stabilization of the world’s population at 8 billion by 2040
• the eradication of poverty
• the restoration of forests, soils and aquifers

Plan B is outlined in Brown’s book.  I just hope that we all start taking this seriously. I’ve said before on this blog that I think the future will be full of wars over water, civil unrest over food scarcity and all sorts of security implications due to the planet heating up. Brown has identified in his article the 20 countries in the world that are closest to collapse (with Somalia being the worst):

Somalia
Sudan
Zimbabwe
Chad
Iraq
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Afghanistan
Ivory Coast
Pakistan
Central African Republic
Guinea
Bangladesh
Burma (Myanmar)
Haiti
North Korea
Ethiopia
Uganda
Lebanon
Nigeria
Sri Lanka

Ronald Bailey wins, of course, because Lester Brown is a charlatan.

Shame for Scientific American.