Some Physhare and Phys-L subscribers might be interested in a recent
post "Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the Elephant in the
Room: Overpopulation #4" [Hake (2009)], which contrasts Herman
Daly's ecological economist view with the traditional economist view
of Lawrence Summers and the World Bank.
The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: In a post "Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the
Elephant in the Room: Overpopulation #3," I contested Podolfsky's
claim that my earlier post on that subject treated complex problems
"in terms of simple ideas and, possibly, a single equation exp^t."
Instead my post merely expressed doubt that enlightened energy
efficiency policy *by itself* could tame the elephant in the room -
overpopulation - and did not ignore the Podolfsky's "energy-use
gorilla."
Podolfsky responded that "to call overpopulation THE elephant is at
best misleading, and at worst distracting from other very important
issues."
Johnson, responding to all the above, asked if people might agree
with this viewpoint: "Even though population numbers rarely follow
pure exponential behavior for very long, they have the tendency
towards exponential growth, and the same goes for energy consumption
by technological societies in the absence of limitations on energy
usage, as clearly shown in 'Limits to Growth' [Meadows et al.
(1972)]."
I agree with Johnson's viewpoint, but Lawrence Summers [current
Director of the White House's National Economic Council and former
chief economist at the World Bank] probably does not, having
expressed the opinion that Meadows et al. (1992)] was "worthless,"
and that their (and Daly's) diagram of the economic system as part of
and within the ecosystem was "not the right way to look at it."
SUMMERS' AND THE WORLD BANK'S VIEWPOINT IS CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF
DALY'S IN PASSAGES QUOTED AT LENGTH FROM PAGES 4-10 OF THE
"INTRODUCTION" OF "BEYOND GROWTH" [Daly (1997].
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What does all this have to do with physics education?
James J. Duderstadt, University of Michigan President Emeritus and
Professor of Science and Engineering wrote in "A University for the
21st Century": "Universities must take the lead in developing
knowledge and educating the world's citizens to allow us to live upon
our planet while protecting it."
REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2009. "Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the
Elephant in the Room: Overpopulation #4," online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://tinyurl.com/yj2pmqp>. Post of 20 Oct 2009
14:25:15 -0700 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, PhysLrnR, & Physoc.