We sometimes get comments from readers wondering how we are able to stay optimistic about the the world implementing Plan B. While it does sometimes seem like a Sisyphean task against partisan politics and the fossil-fuel industries, there are glimmers of hope. For full blog posting, please visit the EPI website.

Just a few days ago we passed a sad marker for Earth. According to Global Footprint Network calculations, humanity reached Earth Overshoot Day: the day of the year when human demand on the biosphere exceeded what it can regenerate. For more information on this blog posting, please visit the EPI website.

In 1968 when Lester Brown was 34 years old and Administrator of the International Agricultural Development Service under Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, he was asked to speak at the University of South Dakota on the world food prospect. The presentation was filmed.

We recently unearthed the 16-mm film and digitized it, dividing the 60-minute presentation into four sections. For full blog posting, please visit the EPI website.

The last week in May, after receiving the Hero Award from the Colorado Sustainable Alliance in Denver and a few days of R&R with his family, Lester Brown began the final two legs of his five-week trip launching various editions of Plan B 4.0 in other countries. For full blog posting, please visit the EPI website.

A news report coming out of the G20 Summit reported that “Every day governments give away an estimated two billion dollars of taxpayer money to the fossil-fuel industry.” (Stephen Leahy, Free Ride for Oil and Coal Industry May Be Over, IPS News)

This massive subsidy to the fossil-fuel industry not only is adding to climate change by rewarding the very energy sources that are helping to create it, but it is making it incredibly difficult for alternative energy sources to compete. It also deprives countries, especially those verging on bankruptcy, to feed and educate their population, attend to infrastructure needs, and more. For full blog visit the EPI website.