Nationality USA Fields Physics | Name Albert Bartlett Spouse Eleanor Bartlett | |
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Born Albert Allen Bartlett
21 March 1923
Shanghai, China ( 1923-03-21 ) Institutions Los Alamos National Laboratory
University of Colorado Boulder Alma mater Colgate University
Harvard University Known for Super conducting quantum interference device
Population growth
Sustainability Notable awards AAPT Distinguished Service Citation (1970)
Thomas Jefferson Award (1972)
Robert L. Stearns Award (1974)
Robert A. Millikan Award (1981)
AAPT Melba Newell Phillips Award (1990)
M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education (2005)
Lifetime Achievement Pacesetter Award (2006)
Global Media Award for Excellence in Population Reporting (2008) Died September 7, 2013, Boulder, Colorado, United States Books The Essential Exponential!: For the Future of Our Planet Education Harvard University, Colgate University People also search for Thomas Robert Malthus, Daniel Malthus, Henrietta Malthus, Lucy Malthus, Emily Malthus, Henry Malthus | ||
Residence United States of America | ||
Albert Allen Bartlett (born March 21, 1923 in Shanghai, died September 7, 2013 in Boulder, Colorado) was an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA. As of July 2001 Professor Bartlett had lectured over 1,742 times since September, 1969 on Arithmetic, Population, and Energy. Bartlett regarded the word combination "sustainable growth" as an oxymoron, since even modest annual percentage population increases will inevitably equate to huge exponential growth over sustained periods of time. He therefore regarded human overpopulation as "The Greatest Challenge" facing humanity.
Contents
Career
Bartlett received a B.A. in physics at Colgate University (1944), and an A.M. (1948) and Ph.D. (1951) in physics at Harvard University. Bartlett joined the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder in September 1950. In 1978 he was national president of the American Association of Physics Teachers. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1969 and 1970 he served two terms as the elected chair of the four-campus faculty council at the university. He won the Robert A. Millikan award.
Views on population growth
Professor Bartlett often explained how sustainable growth is a contradiction. His view was based on the fact that a modest percentage growth will equate to huge escalations over relatively short periods of time.
Bartlett argued that, over time, compound growth can yield enormous increases. For example, an investor earning a constant annual 7% return on their investment would find his or her capital doubling within 10 years. But the same exponential power, so advantageous to patient investors, may be potentially calamitous when applied to human population. A population of 10,000 individuals, if it were to grow at a constant rate of 7% per annum, would reach a population size of 10 million after 100 years.
Bartlett regarded the failure to understand the laws of the exponential equation as "The Greatest Challenge" facing humanity, and promoted sustainable living and was an early advocate on the topic of overpopulation. He opposed the cornucopian school of thought (as advocated by people such as Julian Lincoln Simon), and referred to it as "The New Flat Earth Society"
J. B. Calvert (1999) has proposed that Bartlett's law will result in the exhaustion of petrochemical resources due to the exponential growth of the world population (in line with the Malthusian Growth Model).
Bartlett made two notable statements relating to sustainability:
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."
and his 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?"
Death
Bartlett died on September 7, 2013. He was preceded in death by his wife, Eleanor, and is survived by their four daughters—Carol, Jane, Lois and Nancy.
Books
Influence and legacy
Bartlett's work has been highly influential. As one example, his work on exponential growth and population is referred to in depth in the Crash Course created by Chris Martenson and his organisation Peak Prosperity.
In August 2013 (the month before Prof. Bartlett's death), the Environmental Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder offered training on giving his presentation; the team "came together because they believe so strongly in Dr. Bartlett's message and want to ensure it continues to be delivered well into the future".