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The Oil Depletion Protocol
Zero-Sum Game
Richard Heinberg Feb 12, 2009 17 comments
Oops!—bad timing. The announcement that California taxpayers will have to pay most of the costs for raising the famous octuplets born recently near Los Angeles is provoking widespread … >>
Population
how large can we grow?
The industrialization of food production has allowed global population to grow exponentially, from 1.3 billion in 1850 to nearly seven billion today. With this comes exponential growth in the consumption of non-renewable resources like minerals, metals and fossil fuels, as well as the destructive overconsumption of renewable resources like topsoil and freshwater. Our current levels of consumption and population are so high that we are already drawing down the resources that future populations will need; put another way, we would need 1.6 Earths to maintain current levels indefinitely.
Contrary to popular belief, the warnings about overconsumption and overpopulation given by Thomas Malthus in 1798 and the "Limits to Growth" in 1972 were largely correct — we simply cannot keep growing forever on a finite planet. Barring a massive disaster, it is estimated that the world will have nine billion people by 2040. How will we feed so many of us at the same time that fossil fuels, potash, and other materials essential to industrial agriculture are in decline? How can we manage an equitable transition to a more stable global population?
videos
WILLIAM RYERSON: Do Americans Need to Have Fewer Children?
length: 2:03 credit:
The U.S. population, while not the world's largest, has a super-sized impact on global resource consumption. Population reduction in the United States is a critical step in achieving a resilient future.
associated fellows
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William Ryerson
Fellow, Population
Vermont
latest related publications
9 Global Experts Steer the Gulf Oil Spill Conversation into Fresh Waters
David Fridley David Hughes Erika Allen Gloria Flora Stephanie Mills Tom Whipple Warren Karlenzig William Ryerson Zenobia Barlow May 20, 2010 2 comments
In an effort to broaden the conversation about the horrific Gulf Coast oil spill, nine Fellows of the Post Carbon Institute offer their perspectives on largely underreported aspects and outcomes … >>
POPULATION: The Multiplier of Everything Else
William Ryerson
EXCERPT: When it comes to controversial issues, population is in a class by itself. Advocates and activists working to reduce global population growth and size are attacked by the Left for … >>
Maybe One
Bill McKibben
In Maybe One, Bill McKibben argues that the earth is becoming dangerously overcrowded, and that if more of us chose to have only one child, it would make a crucial difference toward insuring a … >>
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