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Sustainability 101: Arithmetic, Population, and Energy DVD Lecture by Dr. Albert A. Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics University of Colorado, Boulder “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” With these words, Professor Al Bartlett opens part one of a presentation in which he shows that the forgotten fundamental of the energy crisis is the elementary arithmetic of growth. Our world’s technological societies operate on an assumption of continued steady growth of populations, resource consumption and the gross national product. CAN THESE GROWTHS CONTINUE? This question is answered by explaining the arithmetic of steady growth. Professor Bartlett explains “doubling time,” which is the time it takes for a growing quantity to double in size. He uses doubling time to show how one can predict the consequences of steady growth in examples such as inflation and the population growth of our communities, our nation, and the world. In part two the program turns to the problem of steady growth in a finite environment: the situation we face as we deplete our fossil fuel resources. When steady growth occurs in a finite environment, the end of these resources comes frighteningly fast. These facts are compared to the wildly optimistic estimates and public pronouncements that appear in many highly regarded sources. This discrepancy between fact and opinion creates confusion about the energy situation. The presentation concludes with recommendations of a course of action that we must adopt in order to make a smooth, rather than a painful, transition to a future of reduced population and reduced energy usage. Professor Bartlett has given this talk over fourteen hundred times in all parts of the United States and a number of times in Canada to audiences ranging from junior high school and college students to corporate executives and scientists, to congressional staffs. The talk is based on the paper, “Forgotten Fundamentals of the Energy Crisis,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 46, pp. 876-888, Sept. 1978, and revised in the Journal of Geological Education, Vol. 28 #1, pp.4-35, Jan. 1980. Copies of the paper may be obtained by writing directly to Professor Bartlett at the University of Colorado, Department of Physics, 390 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, or email him at Albert.Bartlett@colorado.edu. Professor Bartlett has a BA degree from Colgate University and MA and PhD degrees in Nuclear Physics from Harvard University. He has been a member of the faculty of the University of Colorado since 1950. In 1978, he was President of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and in 1981 he received the Association’s Robert A. Millikan Award. FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: please call the bookstore's toll-free number 1-800-255-9168 to place a secure order. International online orders are not possible at this time. Please do not send credit card numbers via email.