As our series honoring the 40th anniversary of The Limits to Growth study (and best-selling book) continues, I thought we should review our progress in the exponential growth demonstration experiment started with this post on March 11 . Please don’t forget to take the Pledge to Think Small, and to join our Worldwide GrowthBusters House Party on Earth Day weekend (April 20-22).

The exponential growth demonstration is very simple, something you should try at home with your family, or at work with your colleagues. It’s guaranteed to stimulate some interesting conversation. It’s based on this story:

In the GrowthBusters film, I share a few moments from retired physics professor Al Bartlett’s world famous lecture about exponential growth: . . .

I recently attended the Australian premiere of GrowthBusters, thanks to the Stable Population Party of Australia. While down under I had the good fortune to spend time getting to know George Trembath, who wrote the novel, Pachacuti, and organized the Pachacuti Project. Pacha means “the world,” and cuti means “upside down” or “restoring balance.” (Pachacuti was also an Incan emperor about 550 years ago. Pachamama was an Incan fertility goddess, but the term is generally used to mean “Mother Earth.”)

George has been an amazing partner and source of support as I finished and then released the GrowthBusters movie. More about George and Pachacuti in a future post. Today I just want to share this poem from George: . . .

Today’s guest post in our Limits to Growth 40th anniversary series is courtesy of Tom Murphy. Tom is an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. He has simultaneously posted this entertaining conversation on his popular blog, Do the Math. More about Tom after the conversation. While there are economists, like Herman Daly, who believe there are limits to economic growth, there are many more, such as the infamous Julian Simon, who do not. That ratio is, I believe, in the process of changing. We hear from both Daly and the late Simon in the GrowthBusters film. It’s pretty entertaining. But I have to hand it to Tom Murphy. He shares with us here an enlightening and engaging conversation with an economist of Simon’s ilk. Enjoy and learn!     – Dave Gardner . . .

Today’s guest commentary in our series honoring the 40th anniversary of The Limits to Growth Study comes from Paul and Anne Ehrlich. Paul is, of course, famous for penning The Population Bomb in 1968. You might be interested to know that his wife, Anne co-wrote the book. She and Paul have written many more books since then, none as famous and Earth-shaking, but all very important and worth reading. I want to thank Paul and Anne for writing this specifically for our Limits to Growth blog series. I’ve encouraged them to share it as well at the web site of an important initiative they support, called the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. GrowthBusters is also a participant in that initiative, and I recommend you explore it. . . .

Today’s guest post in our Limits to Growth 40th anniversary series is by Andrew Gaines, co-founder of Transform Australia. I spent a wonderful afternoon sitting with Andrew in a coffee shop in Sydney two weeks ago, plotting the salvation of our civilization. Andrew understands and evangelizes about the need for system change. Check out his Whole System Change Ideas Bank. I appreciate this contribution to our series from Andrew and the good work he’s doing. I expect we will collaborate a lot in the future.

I am a Growthbuster

by Andrew Gaines
Transform Australia

I challenge the myth that unlimited growth is both possible and good.

Why? Because the plain fact is that unlimited growth will kill us. . . .