Most people agree that we, as a species, face some serious environmental issues in the future. Global warming, energy decline (peak oil), over population, water shortages, are all things that I find most people these days will agree do exist, and are a threat (and the list goes on). What I find most people can't agree on is the seriousness of these problems, and the urgency of the situation. Many of the problems we face (over-population being the obvious example) are exponential in nature. Do we really understand what that means?
If there was a lily pad in a pond, and that lily pad that doubled in size every day, and it took one 30 day month for the lily pad cover the entire pond.... on which day was the pond half covered?
I found this presentation by Dr Albert Bartlett, a retired Professor of Physics from the University of Colorado, in which he examines the mathematics of steady growth, continued over modest periods of time, in a finite environment. These concepts are applied to populations and to fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal.
Dr Bartlett explains precisely why I find the global, environmental predicament we are in so disturbingly urgent...
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/461
(btw, the pond is not half covered until the 29th, the day before the end.... but you knew that.)
9:27:25 PM 
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