- The Italian mathematician and physicist Galileo in 1600
catapulted humanity into modern science. His methodical calculations proved
that the Earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. For
that transgression, the pope placed him under house arrest for the rest
of his life.
-
- Today, the pope in the form of Western media as well
as leaders across the United States either refuse to address the overpopulation
issue facing America and humanity or they block anyone who speaks up.
-
- While accelerating symptoms manifest around the planet
as to human population overload, the "pope-like" media maintains
a stranglehold on distribution of the predicament.
-
- This year, Chris Clugston will publish one of the most
definitive books on America's human overpopulation predicament: Scarcity.
-
- Human Misperceptions
-
- "Unfolding today among humankind is the most colossal
self-inflicted tragedy in the history of the world," said Clugston.
"During the course of human history, there have been two fundamental
shocks to humanity's prevailing worldview. The first occurred when Pythagoras
discovered that the earth is not flat; the second occurred when Copernicus
discovered that the earth is not the center of the universe.
-
- "The third and potentially fatal fundamental shock
to humanity's worldview is about to occur. We will soon discover that we
can no longer provide continuously improving material living standards
for ever-increasing numbers of our ever-expanding global human population.
The earth no longer contains "enough" nonrenewable natural resources.
-
- "Scarcity" is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary
assessment of the realities, choices, and likely outcomes associated with
ever-increasing nonrenewable natural resource scarcity.
-
- "Scarcity" is also the story of a species,
Homo sapiens, whose superior intellect should have caused it to eschew
natural resource utilization behavior through which lower order species
often experience population "irruptions" followed by "die-offs".
No such luck."
-
- Industrialism and NNRs
-
- "It is understandable that we human beings would
seek to improve our societal wellbeing-the material living standards enjoyed
by our human populations-through industrialism," said Clugston. "The
material living standards associated with industrialized lifestyles such
as those enjoyed by Americans and Western Europeans are far superior to
the living standards afforded by pre-industrial agrarian and hunter-gatherer
lifestyles.
-
- "Seemingly unnoticed, however, is the fact that
our industrial lifestyle paradigm is enabled almost exclusively by enormous
and ever-increasing quantities of nonrenewable natural resources (NNRs)-fossil
fuels, metals, and nonmetallic (industrial and construction) minerals-which
serve as the raw material inputs to our industrialized economies, as the
building blocks that comprise our industrialized infrastructure and support
systems, and as the primary energy sources that power our industrialized
societies."
-
- NNR Scarcity
-
- "Unfortunately, NNRs are finite; and as their name
implies, NNR reserves are not replenished on a time scale that is relevant
to humans," said Clugston. "More unfortunately, economically
viable supplies associated with the vast majority of NNRs that enable our
industrialized way of life are becoming increasingly scarce, both domestically
(US) and globally.
-
- "While there will always be "plenty of NNRs"
in the ground, there will not always be "plenty of economically viable
NNRs" in the ground. In fact, there are "no longer enough economically
viable NNRs" in the ground to enable continuous improvement in human
societal wellbeing at historical rates.
-
- "The episode of NNR scarcity that occurred in 2008,
immediately prior to the onset of the Great Recession, marked a tipping
point for both America and the world. The number of permanently scarce
NNRs had become sufficiently large by 2008 to permanently depress future
economic growth trajectories and societal wellbeing trajectories at both
the domestic (US) and global levels."
-
- Implications of NNR Scarcity
-
- "Domestically, US economic output (GDP) and societal
wellbeing levels "peaked" permanently prior to the Great Recession,"
said Clugston. "As a result, US economic output (GDP) and societal
wellbeing levels will trend generally downward going forward, forever.
-
- "Globally, future worldwide economic output (GDP)
and societal wellbeing trajectories "diverged" permanently from
pre-recession trajectories. As a result, global economic output (GDP) and
societal wellbeing levels will trend upward at a continuously declining
rate (at best) over the near term, peak in the not-too-distant future,
and trend downward thereafter.
-
- "Ironically, through our incessant pursuit of global
industrialism, we have been eliminating-persistently and systematically-the
finite and non-replenishing NNRs upon which our industrialized way of life
and our very existence depend.
-
- "Because this natural resource utilization behavior,
which enables our current "success"-our industrialized way of
life-and which is essential to perpetuating our success, is simultaneously
undermining our very existence, neither our natural resource utilization
behavior nor our industrial lifestyle paradigm is sustainable. This is
our "predicament".
-
- "So while global industrialism and its extraordinary
levels of societal wellbeing are understandable human objectives, they
are also physically impossible objectives. Our historical reality of "continuously
more and more", which we have experienced since the inception of our
industrial revolution, is being displaced by our new reality of "continuously
less and less"."
-
- Consequences of NNR Scarcity
-
- "Humanity's transition to a sustainable lifestyle
paradigm-a pre-industrial lifestyle paradigm, within which a drastically
reduced human population will experience subsistence level material living
standards-is therefore inevitable," said Clugston. "Our choice
is not whether we "wish to be sustainable"; our choice involves
the process by which we "will become sustainable".
-
- "We can choose to alter fundamentally our existing
unsustainable natural resource utilization behavior and transition voluntarily
to a sustainable lifestyle paradigm over the next several decades. In the
process, we would cooperate globally in utilizing remaining accessible
NNRs to orchestrate a relatively gradual-but horrifically painful nonetheless-transition,
thereby optimizing our population level and material living standards both
during our transition and at sustainability.
-
- "Alternatively, we can choose to squander dwindling
NNR supplies in futile attempts to perpetuate our unsustainable industrial
lifestyle paradigm, perhaps for a few decades. In the process, we will
deplete remaining NNR reserves to levels at which they will become insufficient
to support the economic output (GDP) levels, population levels, and material
living standards associated with our industrialized and industrializing
nations. Competition for increasingly scarce natural resources will escalate
into resource wars, which will escalate into global societal collapse.
It would appear that we have made our choice, if only by default."
-
- The NNR Scarcity Analysis
-
- "At the core of "Scarcity" is the NNR
Scarcity Analysis (Analysis), which assesses current and future NNR scarcity,
both domestically (US) and globally. The Analysis provides overwhelming
if not irrefutable evidence to support the preceding assertions,"
said Clugston. "The Analysis is based on comprehensive quantitative
and qualitative criticality and scarcity evaluations associated with the
89 NNRs that enable our modern industrial existence, and for which the
US Geological Survey (USGS) and the US Energy Information Agency (EIA)
maintain detailed information regarding domestic (US) and global NNR demand,
supply, and utilization.
-
- "The criticality and scarcity associated with each
of the 89 analyzed NNRs are thoroughly profiled in Appendix A.
-
- "In viewing the world from our firmly entrenched
anthropocentric (human centered) perspective, there is always hope for
a brighter future, because the fundamental assumption underlying our anthropocentric
perspective is that there will always be "enough" NNRs
to enable a brighter future-and that humankind need only be concerned with
using these NNRs to provide ever-improving material living standards for
ever-increasing numbers of our ever-expanding global population.
-
- "In viewing the world from the broader ecological
perspective, however, there is no hope for a brighter future, because
the fundamental assumption underlying our limited anthropocentric
perspective is wrong."
-
- _____
-
-
- Chris Clugston launched Wake Up Amerika! (<http://www.wakeupamerika.com>www.wakeupamerika.com)
in 2006 to investigate the nature and causes associated with the impending
ecological and economic disasters currently confronting the United States,
and to define timely and meaningful actions to mitigate the severity and
duration associated with the lifestyle disruptions that will inevitably
result. Prior to founding Wake Up Amerika! he spent over 30 years working
with information technology sector companies in marketing, sales, finance,
M&A, and general management the last twenty as a corporate chief executive
and management consultant. He received an AB/Political Science, Magna Cum
Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Penn State University, and an MBA/Finance
with High Distinction from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
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