The consumption bomb

The explosion of the population bomb has long been predicted to cause massive famine in overpopulated countries. Rising consumption, even in a time of decreasing population growth rates, now threatens adverse global health effects more severe than localised famines. The world faces potential ecological entrapment. This has two dimensions: planetary eco-impoverisation and planetary eco-pathology. Eco-impoverisation, the depletion of natural capital, arises as the limit of the global human carrying capacity approaches. Eco-pathology, the disruption of ecological support systems, arises because of the way the biosphere has been modified by human activity and is caused particularly by unsustainable consumption for human purposes. Despite encroaching ecological entrapment, the dominant economic paradigm claims record levels of growth; a paradox that needs recognition. Reasons for denial of the gravity of ecological entrapment are discussed. Ways are suggested to defuse the consumption bomb and avert ecological entrapment.