I am good at moving to “Plan B” in life. If things aren’t working out as planned — and life seldom does, in my experience — then it’s on to “Plan B”!

Lester Brown is a well-known environmentalist and the head of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., which is dedicated to planning a sustainable future and providing a roadmap of how to get from here to there.

He wrote “Plan B” in 2003, and then wrote an update to it more recently. The subtitle is “Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble.” One could think this is a gloomy book and parts of it are. But it is also very hopeful and exciting.

“Plan A” is what we are living now, which is globally an economy and environmental path that is declining and leading to collapse. Brown believes the economic structures and systems of our world are in dire need of change, and that has not started to happen since he wrote the first book. So he is asking us to look at our economic systems again.

His viewpoint is global in scale, which enlightens one to the differences in issues in various parts of the world. I found it interesting he re-wrote “Plan B” in part because the changes for large and densely populated countries, like China and India, are going to need to be different than for other countries. They especially need different models than our Western economic models. China’s consumption of natural resources now exceeds the United States. If it continues to expand as it is now, China, as well as India, can bring the world’s resources to extinction. Economic models based on resource consumption and oil production must be changed.

The consumption of oil can be diminished by using other sources of fuel, many of which are also our food sources. We are quickly creating competition for corn, wheat, soy and other foods — between food producers and fuel producers, between supermarkets and service stations. The demand for alternative fuel to replace our oil products is eliminating the availability of affordable food for many of people.

New economies are coming to fruition, which is an exciting part of looking at “Plan B”. Wind farms and wave-generated energy options are starting to appear. Solar power is becoming more accessible. More is on the horizon, to be sure. The biggest factor in getting to “Plan B” is the public will.

The rise of public concern for getting to a new place will drive our policymakers in the right direction.

Learn more about the Earth Policy Institute and especially “Plan B” at www.earthpolicy.org. You can click on “publications” and then “Plan B updates”.

Naomi Maasberg is administrative director of Stillwaters Environmental Center in Kingston.