There must be an answer

Winston Churchill once said, “It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.”

For the energy crisis, what is required?

The previous five blogs covered key points from Dr. Bartlett’s “Arithmetic, Population and Energy” speech at the 2009 EntConnect conference.

In summary,

(1) To find the doubling time for any percentage of steady growth, use this simple formula: 70 divided by the percentage (70/%). Hence, 7% steady growth per year equates to a doubling time of 10 years.

(2) We saw with the case of the doubling of grain on a chess board and the splitting bacteria in a jar, steady growth equates to huge escalations over short periods of time.

Simple arithmetic tells us that population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. Understanding the consequences of growth, we can see trouble coming and take proactive action to avert disaster. Most important when acting early, we are more likely to control the factors to sustain living in an ethical and healthy way.

If we ignore the red flags, zero population growth will happen anyway. As we do nothing, factors, out of our control, will suppress life and promote death. The resulting human suffering could be incalcuable.

Space confines detailed solutions. Thoughtful community planning and education are a start. Exploring and developing renewable energy resources are another. And let’s not forget one of the most important factors, people who are willing to think.

Solomon expressed this timely wisdom:

A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge,
but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
Proverbs 22:3
(New International Version)

On that spiritual note, instead of "In Growth We Trust" may we choose "In God We Trust" when we tackle our great challenges.


Related links:

EntConnect website: entconnect.org

Dr. Bartlett links:
albartlett.org
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bartlett
globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645

Sir Winston Churchill link:
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

Photos from everystockphoto.com:
Sir Winston Churchill: http://everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=2235250

Apocalypse Now?

Remember Charles Dicken’s Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge offered his “final solution” to the poverty problem? “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

Chilling.

In his “Arithmetic, Population and Energy” speech at the 2009 EntConnect conference, Dr. Bartlett regarded overpopulation as “The Greatest Challenge” facing humanity. If steady growth continues unchecked, zero population growth will happen, anyway, as we expend our non-rewable resources. High birth rates will drop and low death rates will rise until they are equal. How this happens may not be pretty.

What are our options to control population growth?

First, let’s look at some factors that promote overpopulation: motherhood, immigration, medicine, public health, sanitation, peace, law and order, scientific agriculture to produce more food, safety, clean air and water, etc. What we consider as good is bad because it makes the problem worse.

Now consider what curbs overpopulation: abstinence, contraception, abortion, small families, no immigration, diseases, war, murder, euthanasia, ethnic cleaning, violent crime, famine, accidents, disasters, pollution, smoking, AIDS, etc. Most of what we consider bad is good because it “decreases the surplus population.”

Good grief!

Dr. Bartlett regards sustainability as his “Great Challenge." “Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”

He got me there.

How do we sustain living without unleashing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

There must be a way to promote a more pleasant outcome. And that will be the subject of the final blog on this topic.


EntConnect website: entconnect.org

Dr. Bartlett links:
albartlett.org
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bartlett
globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645

Photos from everystockphoto.com:
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=1661545