Climate change, population growth, poverty and the destabilization of our ecosystems are the major issues addressed in a new book, Plan-B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. Written by Lester Brown, a widely published author on ecology, and the president of Earth Policy Institute, the book provides a detailed and comprehensive overview on our planet's current state. "We are crossing natural thresholds that we cannot see and violating deadlines that we do not recognize," says Brown. "These deadlines are set by nature. Nature is the timekeeper, but we cannot see the clock."

A free download of this book is available at earthpolicy.org.

Here are some optimistic facts from Plan-B 3.0:

South Korea leads the world in paper recycling, recovering an estimated 77 percent of its paper products.

Conservation agriculture is practiced on more than 100 million hectares around the world.

Four years after London introduced a fee on motor vehicles entering the city center, average car traffic had fallen by 36 percent while bicycle trips had increased by 49 percent.

The world produces 110 million bicycles a year, more than twice the annual production of 49 million cars.

Fish farming, largely of herbivorous species, is the fastest growing source of animal protein worldwide, increasing by an average of 7 percent each year since 1995.

World soybean production has quadrupled since 1977.

Coal use in Germany has dropped 37 percent since 1990; in the United Kingdom it has fallen by 43 percent.

Solar cell production is doubling every two years, making it the world’s fastest growing energy source.

Electricity used for lighting around the world can be cut by 65 percent through efficiency improvements like switching from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents.

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