Think Resilience Chapter 3: Population and Consumption
April 10, 2017
Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg sat down to deliver a 22-chapter lecture series entitled “Think Resilience: Preparing Communities for the Rest of the 21st Century,” which explores how communities can build resilience in the face of our intertwined sustainability crises. The series is intended for students and concerned individuals of all ages.
Chapter 3: Population and Consumption
Human impact on the environment results not just from population size, and not just from the per capita rate of consumption, but from both together. In this video we explore how adoption of tools, language, agriculture, and most especially fossil fuels allowed humans to temporarily overcome the carrying capacity of the planet to support our growing population and consumption, and why those trends can no longer continue.
New chapters will be rolled out on a regular basis over the coming weeks, but you can also sign up to view all the videos right away.
Image Credits
- Howling wolf: BerndtVorwald/Shutterstock.com
- Gorilla using tool: dean bertoncelj/Shutterstock.com
- Hunting mastadon: Dorling Kindersley Limited
- Plowing farmer, Burial chamber of Sennedjem: Public Domain
- Life in a wet rice farming village, Yayoi period: from the Yokohama History Museum, care of Heritage of Japan
- The Forbidden City: chuyuss/Shutterstock.com
- Ruined statue Turkey: Pecold/Shutterstock.com
- Maya ruins: Jose Ignacio Soto/Shutterstock.com
- Video – field mouse: Red Bull Media House TM/Shutterstock.com
- Mongol invasion of Japan: Public Domain
- Maori boats: ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock.com
- Nenets camp: Evgeny Kuzhilev/Shutterstock.com
- New York City: Songquan Deng/Shutterstock.com
- Los Angeles: Ritu Manoj Jethani/Shutterstock.com
- Tokyo: Henry Tsui/Shutterstock.com
- Mexico City: Morenovel/Shutterstock.com
- Water sprinklers: John Panella/Shutterstock.com
- Steel pipes: Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock.com
- Water bottles: Vladimir Mucibabic/Shutterstock.com
- Copper rolls: Official/Shutterstock.com
- Stack of smart phones: Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock.com
- New cars awaiting transport: Adrian Reynolds/Shutterstock.com