We are facing environmental and economic issues of near-Overwhelming complexity and unprecedented, urgency. Our challenge is to think globally and develop policies that will enable us to change direction. The question is: Can we do so before we go over the edge? Virtually all of the top twenty countries on the list of failing states are depleting their natural assets-forests, grasslands, soils, and aquifers-to sustain their rapidly growing populations. Algeria has enough harnessable solar energy in its vast desert to power the entire world economy. China's new Wind Base program is creating seven wind mega-complexes in six provinces that will have a combined generating capacity of nearly 130 gigawatts-the equivalent of China building a new coal plant every week for two and a half years. From 2000 to 2010, world wind electricity-generating capacity increased from 17,000 megawatts to nearly 200,000 megawatts. By instituting a plan for sustainability now, we can get rid of hunger, illiteracy, disease, and poverty and we can restore the earth's soils, forests, and fisheries. We can build a global community in which the basic needs of all people are satisfied-a world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized. Book jacket.