Biologist Paul Ehrlich reflects on the 1972 MIT study, The Limits to Growth, on its 50th anniversary – including the fact that it has been refuted (poorly), ignored, and confirmed.

While nary a week goes by that we don’t get a new report of the destruction we’re wreaking on our home planet, the news has been particularly bad over the last few weeks. Plus: Bill Maher, usually praised by us for speaking the truth, needs to get there on the benefits of a shrinking economy.

Paul Ehrlich discusses the COVID pandemic, overpopulation, The Population Bomb (including an amusing mistake on the cover), dinner with Johnny Carson, the deficits of our university system, the climate crisis, and human civilization’s prospects.

We NEED to be obsessed with shrinking our footprint, and Lloyd Alter did the research, the spreadsheet, and the book to help us all do our part.

Should we be sitting around eating burgers and driving pickup trucks, and just wait for the system change needed to live sustainably on this planet? We attempt here to put to rest the tired and misdirected debate about whether individual footprint-shrinking action is a distraction that slows needed systemic change, and whether it's worth doing.