32 - Part VII M: Carrying Capacity of the Planet

After taking one year off to teach “Forums for a Future” as a university honors course, I have resumed the series. The continuation applies the concepts developed in the first 16 episodes to an open-end list of contemporary social issues. As a way to get started, I created a three-part “Review and Transition” (Podcasts 17-19) to provide a brief summary and introduction for those new to the series, and a quick review for the original subscribers. Today’s episode, Podcast # 32, is the thirteenth in the open-ended series of positive approaches for addressing the many specific contemporary economic, social and political issues that challenge our capacity for having a future in the 21st Century. The key concept in today’s podcast is that the population of the world is approaching the carrying capacity of the planet. Unless we reverse the total impact of economic growth and human behavior to stop destroying the capacity of the planet to sustain life, the result will be the end of human progress in our immediate future. To do so would only require 20% of people to educe their impact by 2% over the next decade, and in each of the next three decades, for an additional 20% to double the effort. The end result would be 80% of the population reducing their overall impact by 16% by the year 2050. We have the knowledge and technology to accomplish this modest goal. The issue is whether we have the political will to do so; it is our choice for our lifetime.