The Earth is full

This column quickly rose to the top of the NYT's most read and emailed articles when it came out, and it drew a lot of global attention to my book, The Great Disruption. To have such a strong advocate of free markets as Friedman questioning the fundamentals of endless consumerism and growth provoked a very strong response. It also took my message to much larger global audience and led, among other things, to Chris Anderson's invitation for me to speak at TED. I first met Tom when we both attended the WEF meeting at Davos in the mid-1990s. On a long walk down the mountain we started a conversation about these issues that has continued for nearly 20 years. He has a powerful way of taking incredibly complex issues and making them accessible — and there is nothing more complex than questioning the global model of economic growth.

I like this video, where Thomas Friedman and I are interviewed, as it dives more deeply into the economic implications of my arguments by showing the clear links between growth and resource constraint. In doing so, it challenges the idea that the global economy is just going through a difficult period and will get back to 'normal' soon. I particularly like the way Friedman connects climate change, food prices and the dramatic upheavals in the Middle East since 2010. The interview also examines in more detail the important question of whether, when and how society could respond to the emerging environmental and resource crisis, using the historical example of World War II, where we responded far later than we should have, yet ultimately succeeded.

This was a good example of how powerfully TED Talks can spread a message around the world. This interview and accompanying op-ed I wrote got thousands of comments and quickly spread far and wide. It’s a good summary of my key arguments and has some great links to other related TED Talks. It makes the case that we need fundamental change in our model of human progress, not just technology change.