Show notes
After taking one year off to teach “Forums for a Future” as a university
honors course, I have resumed the series. The continuation applies the
concepts developed in the first 16 episodes to an open-end list of contemporary social
issues. As a way to get started, I created a three-part “Review and Transition”
(Podcasts 17-19) to provide a brief summary and introduction for those new to the series,
and a quick review for the original subscribers.
Today’s episode, Podcast # 32, is the thirteenth in the open-ended series of positive approaches
for addressing the many specific contemporary economic, social and political issues that
challenge our capacity for having a future in the 21st Century. The key concept in today’s
podcast is that the population of the world is approaching the carrying capacity of the planet.
Unless we reverse the total impact of economic growth and human behavior to stop destroying the
capacity of the planet to sustain life, the result will be the end of human progress in our
immediate future. To do so would only require 20% of people to educe their impact by 2% over the
next decade, and in each of the next three decades, for an additional 20% to double the effort.
The end result would be 80% of the population reducing their overall impact by 16% by the year
2050. We have the knowledge and technology to accomplish this modest goal. The issue is whether
we have the political will to do so; it is our choice for our lifetime.

