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 conve...

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 beli...

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 i...

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...

A reprise of Paul Ehrlich's candid conversation with us on the 50 th 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 opti...

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 Ind...

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, forme...

OK, boomers, we 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 overcons...

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...

"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...

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 act...

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 somethin...

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...

"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 sh...

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 Ric...

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 tak...

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 wha...

"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 c...

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 inn...

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 simp...

Is flying always the worst travel choice for climate stability? Is traveling by rail always the best? You might be surprised. In this episode of GrowthBusters, Dave shares his research on this subject with co-host Erika Arias and frequent guest Joshua Spodek. We also share a great cheat-sheet, Getting There Greener – The guide to Your Lower Carbon Vacation, from the Union of Concerned Scientists....

We set out to make this the second of a series of episodes about shrinking our travel footprint, but the conversation ended up being a broader exploration of philosophical issues related to all kinds of footprint-shrinking actions. Erika and Dave are joined by recurring guest, Joshua Spodek, host of the This Sustainable Life podcast. The conversation includes: The joy of not flying Generating a lo...

How far will you go in your quest to shrink your carbon footprint? What's eco-tourism, and is it really ecologically responsible? International tourism accounts for 8% of all carbon emissions in the world, and transportation of all types accounts for an even greater proportion of of our carbon emissions. In the first of several episodes about shrinking our travel footprint, Dave and Erika chat wit...

If we were on a spaceship, the end really would be near – August 22. That is Earth Overshoot Day for 2020. We all know we can't graze 100 head of cattle for long on a one-acre patch of land. We'd have a barren wasteland and a bunch of dead cattle in no time. It's a little more challenging for us to make this calculation about meeting the needs of 7.8 billion people on a larger patch of land – the...

Physician Sofia Pineda Ochoa became so concerned about the future of life on Earth that she wrote, produced and directed the new documentary, Endgame 2050 . "There is no human health without planetary health," she tells us. She interviewed several notable experts in the film, but musician/environmental activist Moby provided the most brutally candid assessment of our situation: "Things are not fin...