Growthbusters

World population may peak this decade and start dropping, over 60% of Coloradans are fed up with the negative consequences of growth of their communities, a new online community and resource for sustainability advocates, Elon Musk keeps populating our conversations, and should Dave run for president of the U.S.? Stephanie and Dave sit down with professors Paul Sutton and Chris Bystroff for a conversation that includes an update on Chris’ contraceptive vaccine and Paul’s COP26 experience.  We announce the launch of a new GrowthBusters online community for sustainability advocates. If you want to bring a speaker like Paul Sutton, Chris Bystroff or Dave Gardner to your campus, you can find out how to contact Nicole, our staffer who’s coordinating the GrowthBusters Campus Tour and the new online community. Stephanie shares a bit about greening her recent wedding, and Dave has shocking news about the carbon footprint of feeding dogs and cats (at least their typical diet).  LINKS: Running Out of Gas - Episode 26 of

As we approach the 8 billion population milestone, activist/author Valorie Allen thinks it’s high time we stop avoiding the overpopulation subject. Yet here we are, on World Population Day 2022, and the UN is still beating around the bush, journalists rarely report on the subject (and when they do, it's usually with a pro-growth bias), and most environmental groups run and hide from it. Allen believes that we can bend the long-rising population curve soon and begin the needed contraction. But we must stop avoiding the subject, and we need to make a project of it.  As we observe World Population Day 2022, we share this insightful conversation with Valorie Allen, author of the new book, 8 Billion Reasons Population Matters: The Defining Issue of the 21st Century. This is a rich and comprehensive encyclopedia of history, information, opinion and inspiration. After this conversation, Stephanie and Dave review recent “GrowthBusting News,” including new insanity from Elon Musk, outrageous ideas for overconsumption

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. The study was done by a team of scientists commissioned by the Club of Rome to develop a computer model to simulate the interaction of earth and human systems. It revealed that continuation of the then-current trends in population, industrialization, resource use and pollution would result in overshooting the carrying capacity of the Earth and result in a general collapse at some point in the first half of the 21st century. The study results were published in the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, which holds the record as the top-selling environmental book. The book was authored by four system dynamics scientists (Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William Behrens III). Gaya Herrington, whose 2020 analysis of The Limits to Growth was published in Yale’s Journal of Industrial Ecology, described the study and book ap

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. We devote half of this episode to the news, and half to our swelling file of listener feedback. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Population Decline is Part of the Solution - YouTube video (by GrowthBusters)https://youtu.be/XXyyCY5IM6Q Paul Ehrlich, Unfiltered – Episode 68 of the GrowthBusters podcasthttps://www.growthbusters.org/paul-ehrlich-unfiltered/ GrowthBusters Campus Tourhttps://www.growthbusters.org/campus-tour/ 8 Billion Angels – documentary produced by Terry Spahrhttps://8billionangels.org/ Can Living a 1.5 Degree Lifestyle Make a Difference? - Episode 66 of the GrowthBusters podcast, with Lloyd Alterhttps://www.growthbusters.org/can-1-5-degree-lifestyle-matter/ Obsessive-Compulsive’s Guide to Cutting Your Carbon Foo

A reprise of Paul Ehrlich’s candid conversation with us on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, in April of 2020. We discuss 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 (“I'm very pessimistic about the future but very optimistic about what we could do”). Dr. Paul Ehrlich is most famous for co-writing The Population Bomb (1968). He is Bing Professor of Population Studies, Emeritus at Stanford University, and founded the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: GrowthBusters Campus Tour https://www.growthbusters.org/campus-tour/ EarthX https://earthx.org/ EarthxTV https://video.earthxtv.com/ The Population Bomb by Anne and Paul Ehrlich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb Nov/Dec 2019 Sierra Magazine https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2019-6-november-december BOOKS MENTIONED (by Paul Ehrlich): R

Chickens, Tomatoes and Cars: The Wonky Numbers Behind Your Carbon Footprint 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. Did you know you can cut your carbon footprint from food in half? In a continuation of last episode’s conversation, Lloyd Alter, author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle: Why Individual Climate Action Matters More than Ever, shares what matters most from what he learned while shrinking his annual carbon footprint to meet the carbon budget allowed to meet 1.5°C goals. Don’t Miss: Stephanie makes a shocking confession about her 2019 lifestyle and carbon footprint. And Lloyd raised quite a stir with this tweet: “I was shocked when I e-biked past the gas station, the price is twice as high as when I last filled the car two years ago.” Some of the Revelations: Tomatoes have an unusually large carbon footprint. Eating food in season tastes better! He introduces us to the term “climatarian” - a pe

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. Joining us in this conversation is Lloyd Alter, former managing editor of Treehugger, and author of a fairly new book, Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle – by Lloyd Alter https://newsociety.com/books/l/living-the-1-5-degree-lifestyle TreeHugger – one of the world’s leading sustainability information websites https://www.treehugger.com/ Lifestyle Carbon Footprints and Changes in Lifestyles to Limit Global Warming To 1.5 °Chttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-021-01018-6 Simplicity Institute https://simplicityinstitute.org/ Elizabeth Warren on Major Industry Emissions - September 2019 Presidential Deba

OK, boomers, you blew it. Our best hope is that younger generations are aware and smart enough to save the planet. What do they know, and what are their planet-saving intentions? We went straight to the source, and sat down with a University of Denver Ecological Economics class to get their perspective. This conversation explores awareness and solutions – for inequity, poverty, hunger, and overconsumption, but mainly for the climate crisis and overshoot. A very big thanks to Professor Paul Sutton and the members of his Ecological Economics class: Angie Cody Tim Uma Baysal Taynah Fernandes Matt Gartland Christian Giles Katie Johnson KJ Jumper Melissa Kreppein Juanlin Lin Zein Massoud Ava Moin Katherine Sweeney Gui Zeng MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Engagement/Outreach Part-Time Position Open at GrowthBusters https://www.growthbusters.org/part-time-position-open-join-the-growthbusters-team/ Climate Anxiety in Children and Young People and Their Beliefs About Government Responses to Climate Change: A Global Survey

Get married, buy a house, raise a family. For many of us, that’s the expected life trajectory. Are we entitled to meet that expectation? If many follow the typical trajectory, including having two or more children, then we drive human civilization right off a cliff. On an overpopulated planet, does society have an obligation to make parenthood possible, practical, convenient, and/or affordable to all? Public policy on the table in the U.S. today is designed to make it easier for couples to have children. Ethicist Philip Cafaro joins us to discuss the motivations behind these policies and the moral questions about whether people are “entitled” to have children on an overpopulated planet. In this episode, we hear some unenlightened statements about U.S. population from U.S. Senator Mitt Romney, including inviting listeners to conclude U.S. population is declining (it is not), and a healthy dose of depopulation panic. Cafaro is professor of philosophy at Colorado State University and an affiliated faculty member

“If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble,” according to Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” – Elon Musk. He is, of course, dead wrong. We briefly explore that in this episode, and offer our take on Musk’s stone-age solutions to traffic congestion. We also share thoughts about several growthbusting news items: Recent Arctic and Antarctic Research News Smart Perspective on Falling Birth Rates News (in India) Buzzkill Condoms Google Displays Emissions Info Systemic vs. Individual Climate Solutions A Black Box to Record Demise of Human Civilization Give Us Feedback: Record a voice message for us to play on the podcast: 719-402-1400 Send an email to podcast at growthbusters.org The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/ MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: World Leaders COP Out – Episode 62 of GrowthBusters https://www.growthbusters.org/world-leaders-cop-out/ See How the Antarcti

The climate pact achieved at COP26 was woefully inadequate. We could be in for over four degrees Fahrenheit of warming this century over pre-industrial temperatures, and some scenarios would put us closer to eight degrees. In this episode, Paul Sutton shares his observations from Glasgow, and we get assessments from a few other noted experts. Policymakers are not willing to embrace any climate actions that give up economic growth, but economic growth virtually guarantees climate disaster. The bottom line: only drastic policy and behavior changes will avoid a very bleak future. Sutton is a Professor in the Department of Geography & the Environment at the University of Denver. He served as an official delegate for the American Association of Geographers (AAG) at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in early November of 2021. He is not speaking for the AAG in this episode. One interesting class Paul teaches is Envisioning Utopia Through the Lens of a Wellbeing Economy. Also: recommended reading, and the n

We generate 23% more waste during December than other months of the year, but more than three in four Americans wish the holidays were less materialistic. Our retail and consumer culture have gotten out of hand over holiday gift-giving. 9 in 10 believe holidays should be more about family and caring for others than about giving and receiving gifts. It’s too easy to hit Amazon or just grab something off the shelf at a store. Non-material gifts require more thought, so they are valued more by the recipients. The Center for Biological Diversity’s Kelley Dennings joins us to share what she’s learned about dematerializing and greening up the holidays. Just like “paper or plastic,” does the question of natural or artificial Christmas tree haunt you? She also points us to resources her team has created to help you do a holiday reset (see links below). They include helpful ways to introduce new non-material holiday traditions in your family. We hope this episode inspires you. We also discuss the successful crowdfundi

We’re running out of booty on planet Earth, so billionaires are racing to mine and populate the rest of the universe. In this follow-up to our Billionaires in Space episode, we examine and applaud points made by economist Tim Jackson in his recent essay, Billionaire Space Race: The Ultimate Symbol of Capitalism’s Flawed Obsession with Growth. We also share an update on the crowdfunding campaign to make the documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth free, as of its 10th anniversary on November 3, 2021. We are very close to making our goal. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Billionaires in Space - Episode 58 of the GrowthBusters podcast https://www.growthbusters.org/billionaires-in-space/ Make the GrowthBusters Movie Free - Crowdfunding Campaign https://fundrazr.com/growthbustersmovie Dark Optimism – Episode 13 of the Planet in Crisis podcast https://planetincrisis.libsyn.com/13-dark-optimism-life-after-economic-growth-a-future-worth-fighting-for Billionaire Space Race: The Ultimate Symbol of Capitalism’s Flawed O

“Once a species becomes powerful enough to take over a planet, then is it also intelligent enough to understand the limits to its own power?” This is a question posed in the new book, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival. Author Richard Heinberg is a Senior Fellow at Post Carbon Institute and author of 13 books, including Power Down, The Party’s Over, and The End of Growth. Richard shares what his research has revealed about humankind’s cultivation of power, including how we abuse it and how that now threatens our very existence.  “The sheer power of the Superorganism is staggering. Each year, it cuts and uses up to seven billion trees; it excavates 24 million metric tons of copper and nine billion short tons of coal; and it produces (and brews and drinks) one billion tons of coffee. In order to mine resources and construct buildings and highways, it moves up to 80 billion tons of soil and rock — over twice the amount moved by all natural forces such as rivers, glaciers, ocean, and wind. The Superor

Are Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk doing civilization a favor and advancing science? Are they preparing to colonize space like the Borg in Star Trek: The Next Generation? Or are they seeking status and boosting their egos – AND their carbon footprints – with expensive toys? July was a big month for space travel, with two billionaires blasting into space. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic sold seats and launched space tourists into near space and promised many repeat performances. Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans manned Earth orbits before the year ends. Most of us tend to believe in science and support government funding of scientific advancement. But if we’re in a climate emergency, should we put non-essential, carbon-intensive research projects on hold in order to implement every possible CO2 emissions cut? In this episode, environmentalist Stephanie Gardner joins host Dave Gardner to explore the questions these flights raise. They also examine the carbon footprints of lifest

Everything your friends, family, colleagues, journalists and elected representatives need to know about Earth Overshoot Day. Every other week, another scientific report is added to the stack of evidence human civilization has outgrown the planet. What are we doing about it? Earth Overshoot Day is the point in time during the year at which we’ve already burned through the renewable resources it takes the Earth a year to regenerate. Earth Overshoot Day in 2021 is July 29. Global Footprint Network continuously analyzes UN data and satellite imagery to estimate the planet’s capacity to meet our needs (biocapacity), and humankind’s footprint - or demand (ecological footprint) - on that capacity. According to their analysis, we’re demanding almost twice what the planet can sustainably provide. In the U.S. and a few other nations, we’re engaged in 5-planet living (U.S. Overshoot Day was March 14). Every year as Earth Overshoot Day approaches, we dedicate an episode of the GrowthBusters podcast to playing an audio d

What do the Green New Deal, Santa Claus and the tooth fairy have in common? Find out as we talk with the founder of The REAL New Green Deal Project. Megan Seibert thinks we’re being sold a fantasy – that we can run our current, materialistic, growth-obsessed economy forever on solar and wind (what she calls “faux renewables”).  “It’s not about what we want..., it’s about what is possible. And what is possible is defined by ecological limits.” She advises we need to “engineer a planned, intelligent descent.” It may be painful, but you don’t want to miss this conversation.  LINKS: The REAL Green New Deal Project https://www.realgnd.org/ U.S. House resolution calling for a New Green Deal https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text A 100 Trillion Dollar Storytelling Campaign – introduction and links to The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/10/06/a-100-trillion-dollar-storytelling-campaign/ World Population Day July 11 Webinar : What is

“We need to end the game of Monopoly and start playing the game of sustainability – recognizing the limitations of the planet and building our systems to live within those.” Those are the wise words of Mike Nickerson, author of Life, Money & Illusion: Living on Earth as If We Want to Stay. In this episode Mike explains why he is promoting the mantra, “more fun, less stuff.” We’re in a “tailspin consumerist debacle,” according to Mike, and he’s quite sure we need to be “liberated from the materialist cult.” Our discussion includes the American Dream, the voluntary simplicity movement and the role of advertising in our overconsumption. LINKS: 8 Billion Angels screening and webinar - June 24, 2021 7th Generation Initiative / Sustainability Project  Life, Money & Illusion: Living on Earth as If We Want to Stay – by Mike Nickerson e-book print edition – contact Mike Nickerson Eco-Village project A Strategy for Long Term Well-Being – by Mike Nickerson Work Less Party What Really Counts: The Case for a S

How often do you think about the effect of your actions today on the wellbeing of future generations? What do we owe our children’s children? Are we capable of responsibly delivering on that debt? Philosopher Roman Krznaric explored these questions in the book, The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking. Krznaric thinks we do, and we can: “...humankind has always had the innate ability to plan for posterity and take action that will resonate for decades, centuries, even millennia to come. If we want to be good ancestors and be remembered well by the generations who follow us, now is the time to recover and enrich this imaginative skill.” Long-term thinking and the rights of future generations (not to mention, compassion toward them) are a recurring theme in the GrowthBusters podcast, so we just had to read the book and schedule a conversation with its author. This fascination discussion touches on ecological economics, rights of children, short-termism, and much more. LINKS: How to Get

Can we achieve some unity without giving up our integrity and core values? That’s a very current conundrum, so this seems the perfect time for us to publish this conversation. We confess we recorded this conversation last May! Apologies to our guests for the long delay. We could not make up a believable excuse that would keep our integrity intact. When it seems like we can’t agree on even the simplest choices, one has to wonder if humanity will ever find common ground and a way out of the climate crisis. Kevin Wilhelm and Natalie Hoffman of Sustainable Business Consulting help answer these questions in their book, How to Talk to the Other Side: Finding Common Ground in the Time of Coronavirus, Recession and Climate Change.  CEO and professor, Kevin Wilhelm is a thought leader on how to bring people from different viewpoints and ideologies together to solve big challenges. He is also an instructor at the University of Washington and the author of four books – including the acclaimed “Return on Sustainability