Because the near-constant footprint as a function of population made no sense, I assumed that the Old Footprint data was most accurate for my purposes. I projected population backward and forward in time, and per capita consumption tracked with it.

I constructed an elaborate model based on fixed total resources that led me to believe that the world population would crash within the next 20 years. The scenarios shown here are the main alternatives I considered. "High Growth" would involve getting more resources, almost certainly from space. If we just stopped increased our consumption ("No Growth") our resources would just last a little longer. The solution I settled on ("Cap Growth") involved holding consumption constant, to avoid loss of population, and increasing the use of renewable resources as fast as possible until they accounted for all of our consumption.

 

 

 

© Copyright 2011 Bradley Jarvis. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Copyright 2011 Bradley Jarvis. All rights reserved.

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