Hockey sticks dance together, why isnt population ackowledged the result of foassil fuel use ?

# 4064

You all understand the implications of this.

but rare to follow up on the fact that the curves of

GDP
Coal
Oil
population

while not a perfect overlap, are highly correlated. The implication is, or ought to be, obvious: the discovery and use of fossil fuels p create an inflection point that provides the platform for increasing population. The population has grown. The wicked problem is that the lifestyles and probably survival of the billions depend on the continuing presence of that relationship. Population is the problem created by the increased availability of fossil fuels. You can't sustain a dependent population with greatly reduced energy. Something has to give.

How difficult the future is should motivate our creativity. I've been thinking of things like while we can't get a universal agreement on what to do about climate we do get a universal agreement almost on what clothes to wear. Pants were a response to rubbing thighs on saddles. These are global. I remember Peter Schwartz taken with the idea of the global teenager. Is there something in these that could help? I find myself thinking about great fads in my lifetime. Probably a few of you remember, but there was the Shmoo from Little Abner, and there was the hula hoop. Obviously the iPhone. If we can get four billion people using an iPhone why can't we get for a bit billion people respond into climate change I actually cutting fossil fuel use.