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Page added on July 20, 2012
Edging Toward Collapse: Masters of the Earth
In 1972 the authors of Limits to Growth predicted the global economy would collapse by 2030. They warned the continued growth of population and the economy would be unsustainable.
Government and industry leaders did not listen and did not act. The infographic below, from OnlineMastersDegree.com is a visual reminder of the consequences.
The total of humans on the planet increases by 200,000 births every day. On World Population Day, July 11, 2012, Beth Buczynski wrote: ”The truth is, the current rate of population growth isn’t sustainable. Not for our national economies, and certainly not for our planet.”
Buczynski also shared the WorldWatch Institute’s nine strategies for keeping the global population under 9 billion. State of the World 2012 suggests population would begin to decline by 2050 if the strategies were implemented.
The prognosis for the planet remains grim. Using statistics from resources listed at the bottom, the infographic points out population has grown 7 times in the past century. With life expectancy up 30 years and demand for resources constantly expanding, humans have gobbled up 75% of available land for cities, agriculture, resource extraction, recreation and all other human activity. Species are disappearing. Oceans are becoming acidic. We are using up the biosphere’s regenerative capacity faster than it can replenish itself.
The infographic suggests three small changes individuals can make. They are a step forward, toward the Big Idea Annie Leonard suggests in The Story of Change: “an economy based on the needs of people and the planet, not corporate profit.”
Every day that global leaders drag their feet brings the world one day closer to disaster. They did not listen in 1972. Can we make them listen in 2012?
9 Comments on "Edging Toward Collapse: Masters of the Earth"
Arthur on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 7:49 am
The global economy will collapse from the very first minute US & Israeli bombs will rain on Iran, not in 2030. Could be this year or next… the global economy will never recover. Iran will destroy the refineries and pipelines on the other side of the Gulf with thousands of missiles and nobody will ever bother to rebuild that infrastructure again. China will pull the plug on the dollar and stop financing the US debt. Which means that the US no longer will be able to pay for imports. The global car based economy will come to a shreaking halt and the whole world correctly will blame the US for it. China might be tempted to use it’s geostrategic advantage, namely that only Afghanistan separates China from the Gulf and invade the ME, certainly after it has been shown, via China’s and Russia’s proxy Iran, that in the age of the supersonic missiles fleets are an anachronism. Fleets historically were the basis of Anglospheres might from the beginning of the 19th century. William Lind has written a lot about the socalled fourth generation warfare. The future of warfare is about small lethal warrior groups carrying out pin-point attacks against the enemy. Iraq has shown that a backward people of goat peasants were able to keep the brunt of the US army inside the Green zone out of fear of IED’s hidden by the road-side, costing a few dollars and operated using mobile phones. Another vital element of 4th generation warfare is the morale of the troops, based on religion, ideology and race. That’s the reason why the North-Vietnames won against the coalition of US and South-Vietnam. The Americans had no idea what they were doing in that foreign land and what they were fighting for. Iraq same story.
dsula on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 11:20 am
I hear those end-of-world doom stories for 30 years now, yet no doom in sight.
In 1980 I was told in 2000. In 2000 it was 2005. In 2005 it sure was 2008. IN 2008 it was 2009. IN 2009 it was 2010. IN 2010 it was 2012. And now in 2012 I hear people talking about 2015 for absolutley positively sure that doom will arrive.
SOS on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 11:52 am
Spot on dual.
Thisvauthor Used forbidding, ominous colors, type faces and layout to present a boatload of statistics fanning the flames of peak politics to lead the end of the world junkies around by the nose! Lol
ronpatterson on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 12:30 pm
The author got a couple of things wrong. by 2015 we will not be using 96 billion barrels of oil per day but will be using slightly less than we are today. And by 2020 we will be using a lot less oil than we are today. And by 2050 the population of the earth will likely be less than 5 billion and falling fast, not 9 billion.
But everywhere else he was spot on.
Kenz300 on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 1:00 pm
Quote — ” The total of humans on the planet increases by 200,000 births every day. On World Population Day, July 11, 2012, Beth Buczynski wrote: ”The truth is, the current rate of population growth isn’t sustainable. Not for our national economies, and certainly not for our planet.”
——————-
Every problem is made harder to solve with the worlds ever growing population.
Access to family planning services needs to be available to all that want it.
BillT on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 1:28 pm
dsula & SOS, I guess you think that a missed date means something is not going to happen? Interesting! So a baby that does not arrive on time means the mother is not pregnant? Or that a collapse is delayed by heroic, but useless, methods that only make the end worse, is not going to eventually happen?
I would not bet my life on such assumptions….lol.
Arthur on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 2:20 pm
dsula, what 30 year old doom story are you talking about? The peakoil ‘movement’ was kicked off by Campbell and Laherrère, with this story in **1998**:
http://dieoff.org/page140.htm
Basically they picked up again where the Club of Rome had left off. And the Club of Rome indeed had doom stories but never said that doom would be immediate, but (correctly) identified 40 years ago that ca. 2010 we would witness terminal change. Peak West, as we all know, was August 2008. The West is now dead, at least as the consumer paradise it once was.
The West will find it’s demise in the Gulf in a futile attempt to hold on to the cheap drug that once had made the West great.
‘The world made by hand’ is next on the planetary program.
dsula on Fri, 20th Jul 2012 2:42 pm
Billt: No, not ‘not going to happen’. But it takes WAY longer than the avarage doomer thinks it does. I have no doubt that by 2200 civilization is mostly gone, but I very much doubt it will be gone in 2020.
Arthur on Sat, 21st Jul 2012 10:32 am
Agree with dsula, civilization will not be gone by 2020, not even by 2030:
http://www.peakoil.net/uhdsg/2004Scenario.jpg
ASPO predicts for 2040 a level of oil production of 50% from the top (2006). But there is some relief from shale and there is natural gas, the peak of which will be between 2025-2030. And there is peak coal which will not arrive before 2025-2030. And in the mean time we will see a steady erosion of prices for solar cells, invading life of the masses like happened with mobile phones and PC’s.
I hope Bill will at least live until 2040 to learn he will not fall back to cave man level.lol
I think by 2040, at least in the (former?) West, there will still be a reasonable level of comfort, but it will be less than now. Strong reduction of car transport, no mass aviation, no economic growth ever but gradual decline. Fully developed global IT-infrastructure. Localized life and production with every now and then a banana and cup of coffee out of nostalgia.