Unsustainable Growth, Peak Oil, Peak Coal, Peak Top Soil, Etc. [VIDEOS]
October 5th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan
The unsustainability of constant economic growth and constant energy growth are topics I got into a bit in college (many years ago…), studying sociology and environmental studies. While I keep these issues in the back of my mind, I had not looked into them or thought about them in great detail for awhile… until recently.
A few videos and a couple recent reports a friend of mine recently shared with me brings these topics to the top of my head again.
I wrote a piece on one of our sister sites, Cleantechnica, about a new peak oil report by a German military think tank recently, which discussed the huge societal and political problems we may run into quickly if we don’t address this issue. I highly recommend checking that out.
But oil is not the only thing peaking from our constant growth. Coal, top soil, and other critical resources considered to be “peaking” as well. Peak coal was predicted to happen in 2025 a couple years ago, but a recent study predicts it may happen as early as 2011.
Check out this great serious of videos below for a lot more info on these topics (especially the first two).
Peak Oil, Coal, Top Soil, Etc.
One of the sources of issues above is continuous energy growth. If you haven’t had enough yet, check out this video on the interesting mathematics and implications of constant and exponential growth.
Hope you found these interesting and enjoyable.
Clearly, to me, the issue is that we need to live simpler lives and have fewer babies…. The question I have is: can we voluntarily change or will we be forced to change in uncomfortable and potentially chaotic, devastating ways?
My guess is the former, but maybe I’m just being pessimistic.
Photo Credit: alles-schlumpf via flickr
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About the Author
Zachary Shahan is the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular cleantech-focused website in the world, and Planetsave, a world-leading green and science news site. He has been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and he has been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, and wind energy since 2009. Aside from his work on CleanTechnica and Planetsave, he's the founder and director of Solar Love, EV Obsession, and Bikocity. To connect with Zach on some of your favorite social networks, go to ZacharyShahan.com and click on the relevant buttons.
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