Human ingenuity to cope with economic challenges isis really pretty impressive. But surely, at some point we will run up against the finiteness of the earth. Maybe we'll have found ways to live together and smaller amounts - but that could make the problem worse easily. This has never been a discussion, to my knowledge, that any human beings have ever had. And this is why i am very interested in the value of earth if it has one of cradling and nurturing complexity.
Of all the scenarios that keep astrophysicist Sandra Faber up at night, it's not the Earth's increasing volcanism, the loss of photosynthesis, or even the impact of a massive asteroid. Rather, it's the collapse she's certain will result from the unbridled growth of the world's economies. Join Faber and EconTalk host Russ Roberts as they explore what the most inexorable law of physics has to do with economics and whether the world's growing economies pose a problem or provide the solution for the finiteness of planet Earth.