EPIBuilding a Sustainable Future
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Monday, September 26, 2011

During his career, Lester Brown’s books have been published in over 40 languages, a phenomenal achievement for any writer. French was one of the first, publishing the first two books he ever wrote: Man, Land and Food and Increasing World Food Output. Altogether, 7 of Lester’s books and 14 of the two book series he introduced and co-authored at Worldwatch, have been published in France. Soon an eighth book will be added to the list.Pierre-Yves Longaretti & Philippe Vieille

World on the Edge is being co-produced by Souffle Court and Rue de l'Echiquier publishing houses and will be available in early October when Lester will be in France to promote it.

Of the various publishers who have taken on the task of publishing Lester’s books in France, none have excelled the work of the current team. In 1996, Pierre-Yves Longaretti, co-director of the astrophysics institute in Grenoble, France, read Plan B 2.0 and answered its call to action by asking for the rights to translate the book and get it published in France. Eco-Economy had been published in France, but none of the other intervening books. Pierre-Yves’s friend, Philippe Vieille, who heads a biotech company, had recently founded a small publishing house, Souffle Court, which would be the publishing house.

Pierre-Yves not only translated the book—a huge task in itself—but he added footnotes relating the analysis to the situation in France. Philippe, meanwhile, teamed up with Calmann-Lévy, one of France’s premier publishing houses to co-publish the book. The editor told us that the translation was exceptional, a joy to read.

Philippe also was able to get Nicolas Hulot, a French media personality, to write a forward. In 2007, Hulot warned candidates in the French Presidential election that he would present himself as a candidate if ecology were not one of the main subjects of the election. Polls showed that his popularity was such that he would be a serious threat to the candidates. Thus, five of the 12 candidates, including Nicolas Sarkozy, signed his “Pacte Ecologique” (ecology pact).

In addition, Pierre-Yves and Philippe founded the nonprofit Alternative Planetaire to work on implementing Plan B in France. They have continued to translate much of our work, posting translations of our EPI Updates on their website. In addition, they have translated our Time for Plan B summary and the Plan B slide presentation.

Lester is looking forward to getting together with this tireless team. To see where Lester will be in France, go to our Events page.

Cheers!

Reah Janise Kauffman

Posted by Reah Janise on 09/26 at 10:16 AM

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