tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3611639517962742486.post8876317347783033833..comments2024-03-09T12:20:24.017-08:00Comments on We Live In A Political World: #171 / Laudato Si' Speaks To CaliforniaGary A. Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15049925834933920507noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3611639517962742486.post-44147174435061420212015-06-20T11:12:58.134-07:002015-06-20T11:12:58.134-07:00The impact on the Earth of what we optimistically ...The impact on the Earth of what we optimistically call civilization is not restricted to emissions of greenhouses gases that influence natural climate variation.<br /><br />In the 1970s Paul Ehrlich, Barry Commner and John Holdren worked it out mathematically: I=PAT <br />Human Impact (I) on the environment equals the product of P= Population, A= Affluence, T= Technology. (Ehrlich, Paul R.; Holdren, John P. (1971). "Impact of Population Growth". Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 171 (3977): 1212–1217.)<br /><br />The Pope’s statement ignores a critical component of this equation, population growth. In fact, it goes so far as to deny population growth as an essential part of the problem, adopting instead the United Nations’ Sustainable Development position that developing nations must continue to grow in order to accommodate climate change.<br /><br />The human culture of unlimited growth and consumption is what allows and promotes excessive human impact on the natural world. It is this essential part of human civilization that threatens itself and all other forms of life. Adopting new economic models for unsustainable technologies of resource consumption does not solve the problem, it compounds it.<br /><br />The problem, of course, is self-correcting. Just as jack rabbits on the wind-swept plains of Wyoming flourish and crash, so too will human civilization. This civilization will follow its precursors down the long dark porcelain parkway of history to decline and collapse. Fortunately, there won’t be enough energy and raw materials left over for anything but simple, agrarian, decentralized societies scattered esthetically about the Earth, living within the natural limitations of resource availability and natural waste dispersal. <br /><br />And that will be sufficient.Michael A. Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04980105313542633114noreply@blogger.com