Extraction of the – to my mind – vital statements:

When applied to material things, the term “sustainable growth” is an oxymoron.

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The inevitable and unavoidable conclusion is that if we want to stop the increasing damage to the global environment, as a minimum, we must stop population growth.

So, instead of trying to calculate how many people the Earth can support, we should instead, focus on the question of why should we have more population growth. This is nicely framed in the challenge:
Can you think of any problem, on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way, aided, assisted, or advanced, by having larger populations at the local level, the state level, the national level, or globally?

THE FINAL WORD ON THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE EARTH

Even though we cannot calculate a carrying capacity for the Earth, we have an unambiguous indication that the world population has already exceeded this carrying capacity. We are observing global warming. If any part of the observed global warming is due to the activity of humans, then this is positive proof that the present population of the Earth, living as we do, is greater than the carrying capacity of the Earth.

LAWS RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY

Let us be specific and state that both “Carrying Capacity” and “Sustainable” imply “for the period in which we hope humans will inhabit the earth.” This means “for many millennia.”

The Laws that follow are offered to define the term “sustainability.” In some cases these statements are accompanied by corollaries that are identified by capital letters. They all apply for populations and rates of consumption of goods and resources of the sizes and scales found in the world in 2005, and may not be applicable for small numbers of people or to groups in primitive tribal situations.

These Laws are believed to hold rigorously.

The list is but a single compilation, and hence may be incomplete. Readers are invited to communicate with the author in regard to items that should or should not be in this list.

First Law: Population growth and / or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained.

Second Law: In a society with a growing population and / or growing rates of consumption of resources, the larger the population, and / or the larger the rates of consumption of resources, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability.

Third Law: The response time of populations to changes in the human fertility rate is the average length of a human life, or approximately 70 years. (Bartlett and Lytwak 1995) [This is called "population momentum."]

Fourth Law: The size of population that can be sustained (the carrying capacity) and the sustainable average standard of living of the population are inversely related to one another. (This must be true even though Cohen asserts that the numerical size of the carrying capacity of the Earth cannot be determined, (Cohen 1995))

Fifth Law: One cannot sustain a world in which some regions have high standards of living while others have low standards of living.

Sixth Law: All countries cannot simultaneously be net importers of carrying capacity.

Seventh Law: A society that has to import people to do its daily work (“we can’t find locals who will do the work.”) is not sustainable.

Eighth Law: Sustainability requires that the size of the population be less than or equal to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for the desired standard of living.

Ninth Law: ( The lesson of “The Tragedy of the Commons” ) (Hardin 1968): The benefits of population growth and of growth in the rates of consumption of resources accrue to a few; the costs of population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources are borne by all of society.

Tenth Law: Growth in the rate of consumption of a non-renewable resource, such as a fossil fuel, causes a dramatic decrease in the life-expectancy of the resource.

Eleventh Law: The time of expiration of non-renewable resources can be postponed, possibly for a very long time, by:
i ) technological improvements in the efficiency with which the resources are recovered and used
ii ) using the resources in accord with a program of “Sustained Availability,” (Bartlett 1986)
iii ) recycling
iv ) the use of substitute resources.

Twelfth Law: When large efforts are made to improve the efficiency with which resources are used, the resulting savings are easily and completely wiped out by the added resources that are consumed as a consequence of modest increases in population.

Thirteenth Law: The benefits of large efforts to preserve the environment are easily canceled by the added demands on the environment that result from small increases in human population.

Fourteenth Law: (Second Law of Thermodynamics) When rates of pollution exceed the natural cleansing capacity of the environment, it is easier to pollute than it is to clean up the environment.

Fifteenth Law: (Eric Sevareid’s Law); The chief cause of problems is solutions. (Sevareid 1970)

Sixteenth Law: Humans will always be dependent on agriculture. (This is the first of Malthus’ two postulata.)

Seventeenth Law: If, for whatever reason, humans fail to stop population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources, Nature will stop these growths.

Eighteenth Law: In local situations within the U.S., creating jobs increases the number of people locally who are out of work.

Nineteenth Law: Starving people don’t care about sustainability.

Twentieth Law: The addition of the word “sustainable” to our vocabulary, to our reports, programs, and papers, to the names of our academic institutes and research programs, and to our community initiatives, is not sufficient to ensure that our society becomes sustainable.

Twenty-First Law: Extinction is forever.

SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

The challenge of making the transition to a sustainable society is enormous, in part because of a major global effort to keep people from recognizing the centrality of population growth to the enormous problems of the U.S. and the world.

On the global scale, we need to support family planning throughout the world, and we should generally restrict our foreign aid to those countries that make continued demonstrated progress in reducing population growth rates and sizes.

The immediate task is to restore numeracy to the population programs in the local, national and global agendas.

On the national scale, we can work for the selection of leaders who will recognize that population growth is the major problem in the U.S. and who will initiate a national dialog on the problem. With a lot of work at the grassroots, our system of representative government will respond.

On the local and national levels, we must focus serious attention and large fiscal resources on the development of renewable energy sources.

On the local and national levels, we need to work to improve social justice and equity

On the community level in the U.S., we should work to make growth pay for itself.

A THOUGHT FOR THE FUTURE

When competing “experts” recommend diametrically opposing paths of action regarding resources, carrying capacity, sustainability, and the future, we serve the cause of sustainability by choosing the conservative path, which is defined as the path that would leave society in the less precarious position in case the chosen path turns out to be the wrong path.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY
THE USE OF THE TERM “SUSTAINABLE”
SUSTAINABILITY
CARRYING CAPACITY
FINAL WORD ON THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE EARTH
POPULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
THE MARGINALIZATION OF MALTHUS
THE WORLD’S WORST POPULATION PROBLEM
POPULATION GROWTH NEVER PAYS FOR ITSELF
PSEUDO SOLUTIONS: GROWTH MANAGEMENT – SMART GROWTH
PSEUDO SOLUTIONS: REGIONAL PLANNING
WAR AND PEACE
LAWS RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY
TWO POSTULATA OF THOMAS MALTHUS
BOULDING’S THREE THEOREMS
LAWS OF SUSTAINABILITY
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
BOULDING ON MALTHUS
A THOUGHT FOR THE FUTURE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES

Leopold Kohr can be called the fingerpost off the meander of globalized megalomania (therefor he got the Alternative Nobel Prize by the way). So here he shall be a representative for all those people who create brilliant alternatives to the system we are in now and which leads us obviously into a dead end.

CHANGE must happen – there is no doubt. But it won’t come from the system that causes the problems – this isn’t but an illusion.
So let’s watch out for ideas of people who come from the basement and who are not supported by the power. We will find them on alternative paths like unsponsored blogs in the internet or in little offline-communities near us like transition town movements, permaculture-groups and so on. They are upcoming or already existing everywhere… we just have to care and to take action! And action starts already in the daily decisions of consumption everybody takes. So don’t think, you can’t change anything… you do, too! We all do – we are the problem or the solution! It is essential what and how we consume and it is that we take action – personally, at home, in the family, on the job, … in all our personal habits and actions!!!

So don’t feed global enterprises with money anymore if there are alternative little companies in your surroundings where you even may build up personal contacts. Work on your resilience and of course also the self-sufficiency of your personal community/village. Most of us have become much too dependent on the globalized system and its machinery.
If you don’t believe it, make a little test: Do you have a garden and stock so that you have enough food and beverage for at least three weeks – anytime? Or do you have to buy them daily/weekly? If you can’t say yes to question one, it is highly recommendable to think about it. And to take action… now!

“Slow is beautiful” (Leopold Kohr) and “small is beautiful” (E.F. Schumacher)!