I subscribe to Scientific American, and recently there were was an article that addressed various issues facing mankind and the world and how we might need to deal with them.

One article in passing mentioned how our economies are centered around sustained growth, which I long ago realized on my own is one major problem on a finite world, yet the article did not address that issue.

Later, in a letter to the editor, someone made the comment along the lines of, "isn't growth for the sake of growth the definition of a cancer?"

I agree. Mankind has become a cancer on this planet. We grow and grow and grow - all for what?

Sustainability is the only way mankind will survive on this planet. And with that comes some very heavy ideas. For one, we cannot continue to increase the population. I dare say we are already well overpopulated. (I do not suggest eliminating people in any way whatsoever other than voluntary reductions in child birth rates) Further, our economies cannot continue to grow in an unlimited fashion. How is such growth supportable with finite resources?

I will be the first to admit that I do not have a solid answer to these issues. But at least I recognize them. What I can say is that it will require the proverbial paradigm shift in mankind's way of thinking or we as a species may die.

If anything is to be learned from the concept of evolution it's that a species that does not adapt to its environment will not succeed very well. We are not well adapted to our environment.

Brian