How much?

How Much Is Left? The Limits of Earth's Resources, made interactive.

This Web-only article (click image) is a special rich-media presentation of the feature, "How Much Is Left?" which appears in the September 2010 issue of Scientific American. The presentation was created by Zemi media. Click (or double click) the image to be taken to the presentation then just mouse and click around it.

Examined carefully, this SciAm interactive presentation will help even gung-ho “growthists” (and anti-environmentalists generally) to get past their prejudices and realise the extraordinarily sticky situation that 300 years of ever expanding growth has brought us to. Peak just about everything.

I have, as I put in my profile in this blog’s side bar,

“particular interest in how ordinary economics and business models start to fail (and what to do about it) when approaching the limits of growth (when the world starts to put up a "house full" notice). Which is now.”

Those who continue to preach the benefits of continued growth, and resist moves that will transition us to sustainable ways of doing things, are Yesterday’s Men. To me, I simply cannot comprehend how stupid or ignorant or callous or arrogant or short sighted the “business as usual” types are. And yet they are seemingly impervious to criticism and maddeningly cocksure in their crumbling beliefs. Their rhetoric no doubt sounds plausible because it is familiar – it sounds comfortably “right”.  This is because we have grown up with it – our entire civilisation has grown up with it. It always appeared to work before – look at what we have achieved with it... A constantly blown up balloon always gets bigger and more impressive. Until it bursts. We have to grow up and start acting responsibly. Humanity has reached the end of its adolescent economic growth spurt. Time to put away childish things and be wise. There is no sane Plan B.