Greetings, This is an excellent letter written to an envirinmental activist who resists dealing with the numbers of the offending species which they strive to help make sustainable - humans. Steve Albert A. Bartlett Professor Emeritus of Physics University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, Colorado, USA, 80309-0390 Dear Ms. Hurtado, I have just received, via e-mail, a copy of the DRAFT GUIDELINES ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION which you and others have prepared. The guidelines all seem to be reasonable, but there is one striking omission. The article REFLECTIONS ON SUSTAINABILITY, POPULATION GROWTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT, was published in the journal "Population and Environment" Volume 16, No. 1, September 1994, Pages 5-35. Starting on page 20 are the Laws of Sustainability. Let me quote the First and Second Laws of Sustainability from page 20. 1) Population growth and / or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. 2) The larger the population of a society, and / or the larger its rates of consumption of resources, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability. The paper contains a total of 17 Laws, followed by 21 HYPOTHESES RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY and then a number of observations relating to sustainability. It has now been more than three years since this paper was published in an international journal. Many reprints of the article have been distributed in these three years. As of this writing, no communications of any kind have been received which challenge any of the laws or other contents of the paper. This leads me to feel that there is a good chance that the Laws will not be challenged, and hence can be presumed to be correct. I am sending a copy of this paper to you by regular mail. Please study it carefully. You may be able to find errors in it. If you do, please communicate your analysis to me at once, so I can study what you say. All this being said, I am disappointed that the DRAFT GUIDELINES ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION make no mention of the role of population size and growth in this vital area. A nation's consumption is the product of two things: the per capita consumption and the size of the population. Thus these are the only two variables with which one can work. The DRAFT GUIDELINES address only the per capita consumption. In the US, we could have an enormous effort to improve the efficiency of energy and resource use, and we might achieve annually a one percent reduction in the per capita consumption. However if the population of the US continues to grow at approximately one percent a year, then we will have achieved no overall reduction in consumption, and we will not have progressed in any serious way toward achieving sustainability. Let me thank you for your work and efforts to advance the concept of sustainability, and let me plead with you to give very close study to the Laws of Sustainability in the papers which I will mail from here on Monday. With best wishes, I am, Sincerely yours, Albert A. Bartlett Professor Emeritus of Physics University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, Colorado, USA, 80309-0390
