Growth Rates

Annual rates of growth for population, per capita ecological footprint, per capita annual fossil fuel production, and per capita total energy production are shown below, along with sixth-order curve fits for population and per capita footprint:

Footprint and population values are interpolated for 1961-2003 and energy values are actuals for 1980-2004 (using interpolated population values to determine production per billion people). The "interpolated" values are from the LPR06 projections and may therefore bias the shown curve fits in favor of the population crash that the model predicts (growth rates from that model are denoted "CM"). Note that footprint, fossil fuel, and energy rates were actually plotted using the amount per billion people ("/B"), but the rates are identical to those per capita.

The corresponding population and footprint projections are shown below, along with a population projection (Population(Footprint)) using the footprint derived from the growth rates and the consumption-based population relationship used in the LPR06 projections.