Arithmetic, Population, and Energy
May. 8th, 2025 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zet09A complete, unbroken copy of Albert A. Bartlett's (1923-2013, Professor Emeritus in Nuclear Physics at University of Colorado at Boulder) well-known and well-regarded lecture applying easily-understood arithmetic to several key sustainability matters.
It begins with a simple statement: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”
He then gives a basic introduction to the arithmetic of growth, including an explanation of the concept of doubling time. He explains the impact of unending steady growth on the population of Boulder, of Colorado, and of the world. He then examines the consequences steady growth in a finite environment and observed this growth as applied to fossil fuel consumption, the lifetime of which is much shorter than the optimistic figures most often quoted.
Visit http://albartlett.org/presentations/b... to learn more about this brilliant lecture.
It begins with a simple statement: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”
He then gives a basic introduction to the arithmetic of growth, including an explanation of the concept of doubling time. He explains the impact of unending steady growth on the population of Boulder, of Colorado, and of the world. He then examines the consequences steady growth in a finite environment and observed this growth as applied to fossil fuel consumption, the lifetime of which is much shorter than the optimistic figures most often quoted.
Visit http://albartlett.org/presentations/b... to learn more about this brilliant lecture.