As China surpasses the United States in the consumption of most basic resources, it is forcing the world to rethink and come to terms with the economic future and even serving as an eye-opener for what is in store for countries like India down the road.
"Our global civilisation today is on an economic path that is environmentally unsustainable, a path that is leading us toward economic decline and eventual collapse," Lester Brown said in his new book Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilisation in Trouble.
"China is helping us see that the days of the old economy are numbered."
The leading environmentalist, who is the founder and president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, argues that with China eclipsing the United States in the consumption of most basic resources, people are slowly becoming convinced of the need for an economic restructuring.
"The Western economic model -- the fossil fuel-based, auto-centred, throwaway economy -- is not going to work for China. If it does not work for China, it will not work for India which by 2031 is projected to have a population even larger than China's," Brown said.
Brown's Plan B stresses that the time has come for a new economy and a new world and will have three components: a restructuring of the global economy with a view to sustaining civilisation; an all out effort to eradicate poverty so that the developing world will participate in the process; and a restoration of natural systems.
The author for instance argues that one or more of the new processes is already under way as seen in the wind farms of Western Europe; solar rooftops of Japan; the fast-growing hybrid cars in the United States or the bicycle-friendly streets of Amsterdam. And Brown pushes the argument that among the new sources of energy, wind is emerging as a major source.
And at a time when there is a lot of talk of civilian nuclear power -- say for instance the civilian nuclear power agreement between the United States and India -- Brown said that electricity from nuclear power plants is costly.
"On a level playing field with no tax payer subsidies, nuclear power is dead," he said making the point that with international terrorism on the rise, the vulnerability factor would have to be reckoned with.
Brown stressed that combining social goals and earth restoration components into a Plan B budget means an additional annual expenditure of some $161 billion.
"If we fail to build a new economy before decline sets in, it will not be because of lack of fiscal resources, but rather because of obsolete priorities," Brown said pointing to the annual world military spending to the tune of $975 billion with the US alone accounting for half of this.
"If the United States were to underwrite the entire $161 billion Plan B budget by shifting resources from the $492 billion spent on the military, it would still be spending more for military purposes than all other NATO members, plus Russia and China combined," Brown argued.
