What: The Environmental Center is taking applications from people who are interested in learning to give Dr. Al Bartlett’s presentation: Arithmetic, Population and Energy. The center will be taking applications through Tuesday.
More info: Visit colorado.edu to learn more or apply.
Retired University of Colorado physics professor Al Bartlett has given his famous overpopulation lecture at least 1,600 times.
That’s about once every 8.7 days for 40 years.
CU’s Environmental Center is now preparing for the day when he is no longer able to give the famed lecture as Bartlett — who turned 90 in March — has been diagnosed with lymphoma. Over the past few months, Bartlett has consulted with Susan Beckett, the Energy Program Manager with CU’s Environmental Center who is helping lead the effort to train people on how to give the lecture: “Arithmetic, Population and Energy.”
His lecture starts with a blunt statement: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” And, he spends the next hour explaining why it’s so important to understand the result of steady growth rates — whether its the price of a ski lift ticket or population.
When asked about the continuing legacy of his lecture, the highly decorated academic told The Camera: “I hope it will continue to educate people about arithmetic and that growth never supports itself, that growth never pays for itself.”
During the training, people will learn about arithmetic, exponential growth, population dynamics, energy, climate change and how to handle controversy.
Beckett said organizers will continue taking applications through Tuesday from those who want to learn how to give the lecture.
Ultimately, 25 people will be chosen and they will be asked to deliver the presentation in their community, at their schools or in their classes at least three times during the 2013-2014 year.
Bartlett has given his lectures to various groups — college classes, schools groups and churches — over the years, Beckett said.
“I think Dr. Bartlett was a pioneer in that he started talking about growth and its implications at a time when nobody else would,” she said.
The group will also be using Bartlett’s famed projector slides and replicating them in a digital format.
A year ago, the world’s population surpassed 7 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Bartlett has explained that population rates in developing countries are three to four times higher than U.S. rates — but the United States has a higher per capita consumption of energy and resources.
Bartlett is a Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Physics from CU, where he joined the faculty in 1950. He was President of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1978 and in 1981 he received their Robert A. Millikan Award for his scholarly contributions to physics education.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-1132 or anasb@dailycamera.com.
