Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent post
"CU-Boulder Plots To Extend Life of Al Bartlett's Famous Lecture on
Arithmetic, Population, and Energy" [Hake (2013)]. The abstract
reads:
ABSTRACT: A report "CU-Boulder plots to extend life of Al Bartlett's
famous lecture" [Anas (2013)] at <http://bit.ly/16Cxvw1> describes a
program of CU's Environmental Center to train people to give
Bartlett's talk "Arithmetic, Population, and Energy"
<http://bit.ly/1e6wXiy>.
As I stated in my post "A Global Tribute to Al Bartlett" [Hake 2013)]
at <http://yhoo.it/15N8pfj>: "I realize that some overpopulation
deniers mistakenly claim that exponential growth is not relevant
because the human population of developed countries is no longer
increasing exponentially and is even starting to level out. But
exponential growth is still present in many parts of the world and is
responsible for the initiation of the World's present human
overpopulation . . . . . ."
A typical overpopulation denier is one "dancing_badger" who commented
as follows on Anas' report: "[Bartlett's] arguments regarding
overpopulation have proven to be flawed. Once a country reaches
maturity in terms of its economy and technological advancement its
fertility rate plummets. We have seen this in Europe, Asia and the
United States where populations are actually shrinking. The United
Nations' own projections show total global population reaching a
maximum of around 11 billion and then declining after that. As a
threat the population bomb has proven to be a complete bust."
A cogent response to "dancing_badger" is provided by Bartlett himself
in one of his latest essays "Close the Fire Department," now online
at <http://bit.ly/13wgHCI>, thanks to Marilyn Hempel, (2013), editor
of the "Population Press." In that essay Al describes his experience
at a recent AAAS symposium on sustainability where a panelist, in
answer to Al's question as to why the obvious benefits of reducing
our present overpopulation were never mentioned, explained that
"United Nations figures show that the growth rate of world population
is declining and world population growth is expected to stop on its
own later in the century. So the population is under control and
there is no need to worry ourselves about it at this time." Al
responded by inviting the panelist to come with him to City Hall and
seek to convince city government that it doesn't need a Fire
Department since it's an established fact that all fires will
eventually go out!
**************************************************
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to
understand the exponential function."
- Al Bartlett
REFERENCES [URL shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 14 Aug 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. "CU-Boulder Plots To Extend Life of Al Bartlett's
Famous Lecture on Arithmetic, Population, and Energy," online on the
OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://bit.ly/17nOP6b>. Post of 13 Aug 2013
20:03:46-0400 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the
complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists and
are on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/17pkVhT> with a
provision for comment.