On Monday the GrowthBusters project begins a campaign to honor the 40th anniversary of the landmark Limits to Growth study. If you’re not already subscribed to my blog, please do so – you won’t regret it. During March and April I’ll be sharing insights from the leading thinkers in sustainability, economics, population and environment. I’ll also be posting segments from the GrowthBusters movie related to the study. You’ll also be treated to clips that never made the film, including an interview filmed just last week with Jorgen Randers, one of the original MIT team on the study.

As we go along, we’ll also perform a little experiment to demonstrate the power of exponential growth. Now you may think you have a good handle on the mathematics of growth. I feel I certainly do. But I’ll wager that as the experiment proceeds, we may be just as astonished as everyone else. This experiment is also a wonderful way to engage your family (especially your kids), your roommates, or office colleagues. You can have some fun and spark some interesting conversations. . . .

Morning Joe on MSNBC is one of my favorite programs. It’s on from 4 to 7 in the morning where I live, so I watch while I’m stretching and making my first cup of, well, joe. This morning’s program had this interesting segment about a book called Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think. It offers a glimpse of classic techno-optimism.

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There was a lot of talk in this segment about having a phone, a car, a toilet, air-conditioning, etc. Certainly indoor plumbing, good health care, and electricity are major improvements to our lives. But the book’s co-author, Peter Diamandis, is chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation, which offers financial incentives for groundbreaking new technologies. It’s not surprising he places a lot of faith in technology. It is, however, disappointing. . . .

Achieving a healthy, sustainable local economy.

This is a good example of local growth busting. I just sent this letter to my local county regarding its growth-centric draft strategic plan:

Tim Wolken
Director, Community Services Department
El Paso County
2002 Creek Crossing
Colorado Springs, CO 80905

Dear Mr. Wolken:

I wish to provide this input regarding the draft El Paso County Strategic Plan 2012 – 2016.

I would like to point out some inconsistencies between Goal #5 and some of the strategies and tactics under that goal.

Goal #5 – Consistently support regional economic strength.

For several years, according to data compiled by the Global Footprint Network (see page 72 of the atlas for N. America data), we are utilizing resources at a rate faster than the Earth can replenish them. This is due to increasing population and economic growth. The current economic crisis is a symptom of our hitting the limits to growth, as envisioned in the computer modeling of the Limits to Growth study performed by scientists at MIT 1970-1972. . . .

Focus Our Outrage Where it Will Count

Last night I finally had a chance to see the film, GASLAND, which I highly recommend. It’s a fairly simple film, but one with heart and authenticity. The film shares the experiences of several families and communities whose water wells were poisoned by contaminants introduced into the groundwater system via nearby hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking,” as it is commonly called, is a process of injecting water, sand and a long list of chemicals into a gas well in order to fracture the rock below and release natural gas that otherwise can’t be recovered.

What was really amazing was to see the outrage among audience members when the lights came on. This screening was hosted by Transition Town Manitou Springs, so there were people in the room who understand the need to reorganize our way of living in a more sustainable fashion. But it was disconcerting to see a few of the most outraged, most likely not Transitioners, seemed to think we could avoid the ills of fracking if we just confine it to certain places or just replace all that natural gas energy with solar power. They did not yet get that the scale of our current economic model can only be supported by the incredible power of fossil fuels. . . .

I’ve long admired Robert Redford for the active role he plays in making this a better world. I’m sharing this commentary from Redford today because he lauds President Obama for “standing up” to “Big Oil.” “Big Oil” is a major growth booster. And the $12 million Redford mentions in congressional campaign contributions over the last 2 years is one of the most powerful forces keeping us addicted to growth.

GrowthBusters is a non-partisan public education project, but I believe we should thank elected representatives who have the courage to embrace the end of growth and stop wasting precious resources trying to get another hit of that destructive drug. We should thank the President for not making yet another huge environmental sacrifice in the interest of fueling growth. But I remind you it is painfully apparent Obama either doesn’t understand the era of growth is over, or doesn’t feel he can be honest with the electorate about that and keep his job. The latest evidence of this is his remarks about why he rejected the pipeline, and his remarks just a few days ago to a crowd of employees at headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the President had this to say: . . .