Prof Bartlett on exponential growth

Albert Bartlett has given the same presentation 1,540 times. That's the equivalent of once a day, every day, for more than four years. But the 81-year-old physics professor emeritus at the University of Colorado has spread things out a bit. He has been teaching his lesson on the power - and danger - of exponential growth since 1969.

This week, he's presenting "Arithmetic, Population and Energy" four times - twice at CU in Boulder, once at CU-Denver, and, on Friday, at California State University, Fresno. He expects to present it between 30 and 40 times this year, mostly at CU-Boulder ... these statistics - and many, many others - are in a book published last year. It's called "The Essential Exponential!: For the Future of Our Planet."

It's all in the mathematics of compound growth. For investors, a constant 7 percent return doubles your capital in 10 years. But the same dynamic can be calamitous to the environment, Bartlett contends. For example, a population of 10,000 growing at a constant 7 percent rate will hit 10 million a century later.

Bartlett rails against population growth, which, he says, "never pays for itself." He says building more reservoirs and highways doesn't solve problems, but rather invites even more growth and bigger hurdles down the road. Politicians lack the will to view population growth as something to be avoided and not invited, he says.

... but doesn't Bartlett ever tire of saying the same thing - however interesting - over and over and over? "I feel sort of like Billy Graham. I'm an evangelist. You've got to get it out to the people," Bartlett said. "I'll do it as long as I can."

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