Coincidentally to the discussions about Sir Frank Fenner's views on the dangers of growth and "unbridled consumerism", BBC Worldwide's Peter Day aired a program on 29 November titled "Growing Pains". It's rather good
and canvasses both sides of the argument -- pro and anti growth; those who think more technology will help solve the problem of over-consumption of non-renewable resources, vs those that think the only way is fewer people consuming less.
The link to BBC site is here, and the podcast is (or should be) here.
One of his guests is John Kay who says that today's GNP "weighs no more" than it did a hundred years ago. In other words, we're creating more goods and services that are better and smarter. His website is here.