Exponential Growth: Exponential growth gives the illusion that it is growing slowly at first, but the growth rate becomes more and more rapid over time.
Exponential growth is a growth rate that, instead of being constant, becomes more and more rapid over time. Exponential growth is sneaky. It gives the illusion that things are growing slowly at first, which makes it hard for us to anticipate the impact of exponential growth. The root of the climate change problem is exponential growth of human population. As the number of people who live on planet earth has grown, so has our impacts. Humans clear exponentially more farmland to grow enough food, burn exponentially more fuel to create enough energy, and all of this creates exponentially more greenhouse gasses. Because everything is connected in a system, the changes made by a population that grows bigger and faster over time has widespread effects. And since we live in a closed system, there are limits that our exponential growth curve might someday exceed.