It’s time on the Small Town Project to take a step back to look at the “big picture,” at how our local growth issues connect with larger scale issues concerning the environment, population growth, and sustainability. I plan to post something soon which looks at those connections, but as a starter, perhaps it’s worth thinking for a moment about this quote from Albert Bartlett, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Colorado, and recipient of the first George Gamow Memorial Lecture Award for his “most significant contribution to the public’s understanding of science.”:
THE GREAT CHALLENGE
Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor, on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?