[Phys-L] Albert A. Bartlett, 1923 - 2013 RIP. Arithmetic, Population, and Energy

[Jane Jackson <jane.jackson@asu.edu>]

Friends,
Al Bartlett made a great contribution to the world!  I know him and I 
delight in him through our work together:  in 1994 Al and I started 
the AAPT ad hoc committee on physics education and the environment. 
It has grown and expanded. I last saw Al at the AAPT summer meeting 
in Portland, Oregon in 2010; he was still vibrant in spirit, although 
weakened in body, due to cancer & treatment for it and his old age.
     We can honor him by introducing friends & students to his 
website: http://www.albartlett.org/, and from there, his wonderful 
and important videos, which are also on YouTube (see my NOTES). All 
citizens should view his videos: for his wit, and for his crucial 
insights and his teaching.  In his words, "we would not be having the 
climate change issue now if we had been willing to take hold of the 
population problem 50 years ago."
    -- Jane Jackson, Arizona State University


[This was posted by Hugh Haskell, a high school physics teacher, to 
the PHYSOC listserv on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. -- Jane J]

		------------------------
The sad but inevitable news came yesterday. For those of you who 
might not have received the news already, Al passed away Saturday. 
His daughters sent the following e-mail to his mailing list:

>  Dear friends of Al,
>
>  Dad passed away yesterday afternoon.
>
>  Thank you for calling or visiting Dad during these last 7 weeks. 
> He enjoyed talking with each of you.  ...
>
>  We plan to do a memorial service for him in early-to-mid October in 
> Boulder, but those details haven't been finalized.
>
>  During these last 2 months people have asked us how they can help. 
> We are touched by your kindness and generous offers.  In lieu of 
> gifts or flowers, Dad preferred that donations be sent to the 
> "Albert A Bartlett Award in Physics" fund which was established to 
> support Physics majors who intend to
>  teach secondary physics as their career.  (University of Colorado 
> Foundation, 4740 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO  80301)
...


Al will be missed. He was one of the few among us who truly made a 
difference. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit him last 
month, and I am happy to relate that he remained alert and firm in 
his resolve to convince all that, in his words, "we would not be 
having the climate change issue now if we had been willing to take 
hold of the population problem 50 years ago."
		--------------------

[Another subscriber posted this on Sept. 11.
		-------------------
Here's a link to an obituary in the Huffington Post,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/09/dr-al-bartlett-arithmetic-population-and-energy_n_3895545.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

If it's not a hot link, the title is "Dr. Al Bartlett Dead: Physics 
Professor Who Gave Famous Lecture On Overpopulation Over 1,700 Times 
Dies At 90",
date 9/10/13, and there is a link to the first part of a video lecture.
		--------------------

NOTES:
The famous 8-part You Tube lecture series by Al Bartlett, 
Arithmetic, Population, and Energy,  is at
 <http://bit.ly/1e6wXiy> (aptly tabbed:  The Most Important Video 
You'll Ever See).


Four quotes by A.A. Bartlett:
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to 
understand the exponential function."

" 'Sustainable growth' is an oxymoron."

"Smart growth destroys the environment. Dumb growth destroys the 
environment. The only difference is that 'smart growth' does it with 
good taste. It's like booking passage on the Titanic. Whether you go 
first-class or steerage, the result is the same."

"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?"