Energy slave and the coming cliff...

Economists like to point to ingenuity, capital and labor as the drivers of economic growth.

They certainly contribute, but today's economy would be vastly smaller than it is were it not for the availability of Buckminster Fuller's "energy slaves" — the fossil sunlight that we have tapped for the past three centuries in the form of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and petroleum.

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We now face two huge problems as a result. One is on many people's minds: climate change, the unintended consequence of burning fossil fuels.

The other is no smaller but less front and center, because people are technological optimists: The civilization constructed using fossil energy slaves may be vastly more complex and energy intensive than what annual solar income can support.

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energy slave article

An article on the concept of the energy slave.   The energy slave, Americans have over 100 energy slaves.  The world currently depends on fossil fuels to produce energy, and there is a limited production rate per year.   Adding more citizens does not add more fossil energy production, energy would have to be rationed more, if U.S. population increased too much.