Overpopulation as a myth?

ravi gadfly at exitleft.org
Sat Jan 19 09:25:27 PST 2002


Kevin Robert Dean wrote:


> Hello folks
>
> On another list I'm on, we got into a pretty heaed
> discussion about the concept of "Sustainable
> Populations" as a requisite for a "Sustainable
> Society", with me taking the position that so called
> "overpopulation problems" are basically a result of
> unequal distribution of resources and that advances in
> technology, ect will help overcome these problems.
>
> I also take the position that requests for people to
> stop having babies (aside from being an attack on
> impoverished women) is a pipe dream at best, so
> concentrating on how to distribute and conserve
> resources should be the focus.
>
> Does anyone have any good resources to help my cause?
>

i do not have any particular pointers w.r.t your side of the debate, but this overpopulation thing was a big issue a while ago when paul ehrlich the biologist wrote a book called "the population bomb" and predicted that overpopulation would lead to great suffering in the near future. the debate lead to a bet between ehrlich and economist julian simon on the prices of certain resources which essentially ehrlich lost.

one take on the issue: The Science of Population, Development, and the Environment http://www.ucsusa.org/balance/pop.science.html

writings by julian simon: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/BMGT/.Faculty/JSimon/

--ravi



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