Apparently, we all won't be trading in our olive gardens for Lexus luxury automobiles.
Don't think this is superstition and end-of-the-world drivel. Oh no! This is science, damn it:
You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?
Apparently, scientists have taken current rates of growth with current technology and concluded we need 1.5 Earths to sustain ourselves. We have one Earth. Do the math. Those who don't are in denial, you see.
But.
But how do we separate whackos predicting Rapture for true believers from model-driven science? For me, you can't do it when the so-called scientist in question predicts that after the end of the 1.5 world we will achieve utopia:
But Gilding is actually an eco-optimist. As the impact of the imminent Great Disruption hits us, he says, “our response will be proportionally dramatic, mobilizing as we do in war. We will change at a scale and speed we can barely imagine today, completely transforming our economy, including our energy and transport industries, in just a few short decades.”
We will realize, he predicts, that the consumer-driven growth model is broken and we have to move to a more happiness-driven growth model, based on people working less and owning less.
Yeah, this is way different than being a religious quack trying to predict when God will end the world.
I'll say it again (because I never tire of repeating it): I'm not saying you can't drown in a pool of Thomas Friedman's wisdom. But you would have to be drunk and face down to do so.
Now go and emit no more.
UPDATE: Oh, and let me know when Friedman thinks he has enough stuff and wants to adopt a happiness-driven lifestyle so he isn't on top of 1-1/2 worlds. (Tip to Wall Street Journal)
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Jonah Goldberg.
