The world faces problems of overwhelming complexity and urgency. The challenge is to think globally and develop policies to counteract environmental decline and collapse. Brown illustrates the economic future through an environmental perspective to develop a plan that will sustain civilization. Throughout the book, he focuses on four major elements that will lead the world toward a better future. These include a massive reduction in global carbon emissions, stabilizing the world's population, reducing poverty and restoring the diversity of our planet's natural landscapes. Brown, however, presents the reader with very specific arguments in World on the Edge; it also highlights some weak points that may not be the best plan to save the planet. Brown gives concise, but very informative, summaries of what he sees as the major problems facing civilization due to the stress we place on our environment, which is a major problem. valuable contribution to the ongoing debate. For example, in chapter five, Brown discusses the emerging politics of food in the face of scarcity. Food prices rose rapidly between 2007 and 2008 and the social order in many countries began to collapse. He goes on to describe many different places that go through this process. One of the most important topics Brown addresses is how the world's governments and social movements can still avert the threat of global disaster, on every continent in this century, if we can act over the course of of this decade with the degree of urgency required by our situation. Brown understands why we have reached this point of global crisis. He says the fossil fuel and defense industries have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Although Brown is not in the middle of paper ......a, especially among vulnerable populations in Bangladesh and the Maldives. “The flooding of Bhola Island, Bangladesh, in 1995 provides a stark example of social and environmental catastrophe in what was arguably a climate refugee crisis, as many of those who fled the island were not returned to nothing” (Riva, 20). Riva says populations vulnerable to environmental risks face a real threat of displacement due to climate change. In conclusion, Brown's World on the Edge presents excellent plans and ideas on how to save ecosystems and various habitats around the world. I really enjoyed the book and found Brown's arguments to be very logical and thorough. It was a very readable and authoritative account of the problems we face, from global warming to dwindling water sources, fisheries and forests. Books provide me with a plan to help the planet.