After watching the video of Khosla Ashok presenting Roger Revelle and his idea of science for the future I believe we can achieve a better world through technology only if it solves the problems of the community and not for the mass production of goods. Billions of people are living without clean drinking water or cooking fuel and their land is being used by American factories to make clothes and toys cheaper for us consumers. It was a crazy number to put on it but in 4 decades we could use up resources equal to two planets in order to satisfy our wants and not our needs of survival. If there is not a stop or dramatic slowdown in our consumptions patterns, or the production and consumer system this number can be real but I would like to change that giving my kids a better life. A big factor that is causing the most damage in our system is ecological rucksacks. The largest use of energy in the world is moving materials across the planet to have it manufactured for a cheaper price, with significant damage to nature with the carbon footprint of travel. We may not be paying the full price for our products right now but it will catch up to us consumers.
The best definition of sustainable development I found in the reading Sustainable Development by Stephen Wheller is “development that improves the long-term health of human and ecological systems.” I like this definition because it leaves out the “needs” of the world and the capacity the planet can sustain. Since the dawn of time animals and human have developed their communities and livelihood with pre-existing ecosystems. Animals have adapted to their ecosystems more efficiently than humans and we can learn from their ways of life to teach us. I found it interesting that the idea of sustainable did get introduced to America until decades after the German’s had been practicing methods of sustainability. Then in 1960 some of the first photos of earth made people conceptualize the planet as a whole. People were able to put the size of the world into perspective that we all live on this small planet together and that everyone should get treated equal with the same rights to lands.
rs450bassett 
“It was a crazy number to put on it but in 4 decades we could use up resources equal to two planets in order to satisfy our wants and not our needs of survival.”
I hope it really is much longer than 4 decades before we starve ourselves…Although, I feel that however long it is, it will occur right up until the brink of total destruction. It just seems like human nature, waiting until the last minute to turn in that assignment, project, or idea before it’s too late. Perhaps though our current form of procrastination lies not within the student submitting the paper, but the professor accepting it. I think we have some solutions, but only once we are right on the edge, will they be accepted.
I agree with you on esological rucksacks as the big component of carbon emmision. american always want to new item regardless if there old items is perfectly fine. the consumption of the worlds resources needs to be reduced for a impact ot be made.