If we continue to grow at two point three % a year our energy, in a century from now, just the heat from our ities alone, will be the equivalent of what the greenhouse gas effect is to day. And absolutely dwarfs are ncern andglo warming. We have heat constraints on the anet o growth like absolutely urgent ones. So don't go off thinking, oh, we just make things more efficient andh we don't have waste heat. No, it's all going to heat.
On this episode, we meet with Professor of Physics at UCSD and the Associate Director of CASS, the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Tom Murphy.
Murphy shows us how continued growth and energy use is an impossibility if continued at our current trajectory. How does physics constrain our planetary ambitions? Murphy helps us do the math.
To help us align with a post-growth trajectory, Murphy offers suggestions for how humans can begin to treat nature as well as we treat ourselves — and why we must care about the future in order to create a brighter one.
About Thomas Murphy
Thomas Murphy is a Professor in the Physics Department at UCSD, the Associate Director of CASS, the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, and is the author of Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet.
From 2003–2020, Murphy led the APOLLO project as an ultra-precise test of General Relativity using the technique of lunar laser ranging. Professor Murphy’s interests are transitioning to quantitative assessment of the challenges associated with long-term human success on a finite planet.
For Show Notes and Transcript visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/18-tom-murphy