Thanks for killing the planet, boomers!

[GliderGuider]

19. Unfortunately, this article is a simple emotional rant. The truth is a lot more horrifying.

Something closer to the truth would be this:

Given a species with an evolved limit-defeating brain like ours, living on a planet with a surfeit of combustible carbon and a benign climate, this outcome was utterly unavoidable. It has been in the cards since we first tamed fire, made the first stone tool, yoked the first draft animal, planted and tended the first seed, created the first village, selected the first chief, put up the first water wheel, built the first road, sailed the first boat...

The boomers just happened to be alive when we noticed that the petri dish was half full. Right about when the "Consumption" line crossed the "Carrying Capacity" line in this next graph:



It's not even population on its own we have to worry about, but the product of the number of people times the per capita consumption (I=PAT). If we use "per capita energy consumption" as the proxy for our general average human consumption, there are now the equivalent of 140 billion naked apes chewing away at the planet:



Here is a series of short essays that frame the topic from this perspective:

Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Another Look
Thermodynamic Footprints
No Really, How Sustainable Are We?
Paradise Lost