"Only madmen....."

Honesty should never be confused with pessimism. Wessels book presented an, at times ,hard truth about our current situation. At the speed we are moving there are, and will be incredible environmental implications we will not be able to avoid by sticking our heads in the sand. He goes as far as to compare our increasing economic growth to a biospheric cancer. At this place and time i find it hard to disagree. We are moving and producing with little regard as to how we will maintain ourselves on this planet, and we have shown little interested in slowing down. Never once did i get the feeling Wessels felt defeated, nor was he presenting the information with a "gloom and doom" attitude, if anything i related much more to Wessels work than i did the beginning of McDonough's book. I'm certainly not a pessimist, but perhaps a realist. (you may ask yourself what's the difference, i'm still trying to figure it out) but McDonough seemed to overlook things in his efforts. He points out that a recycled carpet required just as much energy and waste as would a new carpet, and then praises himself for using a synthetic "paper" that was recycled and could be again. I suppose the difference between the two was that the carpet would eventually make it to the landfill but the book would continue in the cycle. But would it? And would it just use more energy in the process? I'm certainly not bashing is efforts, and appreciate his creative approach , i just feel he's getting a little lost in his idealism. (a huge conclusion to draw from reading 16 pages i know, i'm remaining open) I am however intrigued and inspired by the idea of doing "less bad" an idea that can go to great lengths. Exponential growth and what our future holds as a result of it is certainly a topic with much room for reflection, besides "Only madmen and economist believe in perpetual exponential growth."