The Real Inconvient Truth

In an article of the same name, Diane Francis of the Financial Post, points out something that has been depressing me for about two years now. No matter what else we do if our growth is exponential, as it has been to date, the remedies for the earth and our survival must be exponential as well.

No matter how much you believe in technology, how much science fiction you read if you believe that there will come a time when the costs of technology will overcome the losses of technology, you are sadly mistaken.

Population is the key to being able to save the world. Everything, let me say that again, EVERYTHING comes down to this in the end. How many wind turbines do you need? Oops, that was yesterday's estimate, we now need more. How much CO2 can we output per person? Whoops, gotta reduce that, your neighbors just had another kid.

Every "green" solution, especially those that rely on us consuming differently, always have to be scaled up. When the scale is increasing exponentially, what then?

I'm happy to spend some money to develop the third world, my only condition is to limit births. We already do it here due to our good luck and we need to do it more!

I'm guessing that is why I've been so bummed out about the world around me lately. The realization that I've already done the only thing that counts and the world isn't going to join me.