Geography-Geology

PERSPECTIVES ON POPULATION ISSUES

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY-GEOLOGY
Dr. Keith Montgomery




The objective for this page is to provide access to a variety of perspectives on the "population issue".

FIRST:  If you haven't yet read Malthus then you should go no further until you have!

There is one HTML version of the essay that comes with a topical guide. Reading everything in context is much better, but the topical guide does give one a flavor of what's in store in the real thing (this site also contains a full text in HTML).
 

NEXT ...... there are a number of avenues of thought and discussion in the present-day that lead off from the original.
 

Neo-Malthusians

Structuralists

Liberal Economists

Others
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Neo-Malthusians


Carrying Capacity

Joel E. Cohen
"Maximum occupancy"
John Ehrlich
"Overpopulation"
William Catton
"Malthus: more relevant than ever"
Lester Brown
"Malthus 200th. Anniversary"
Robert Costanza
"Escaping the overpopulation trap"
J. Kenneth Smail
"Reducing human numbers by 80%"

Food and famine in the late 20th. Century

Garrett Hardin
"The case against helping the poor"
Joseph Fletcher
"Chronic famine and the immorality of food aid: a bow to Garret Hardin"
A brief (unsympathetic) review of Hardin's philosophy
Robert D. Kaplan
"The coming anarchy"
John Ehrlich
A brief (unsympathetic) review of Ehrlich's philosophy
William and Paul Paddock
A brief (unsympathetic) review of the Paddocks' philosophy

Environmental degradation

Paul Ehrlich
"The most overpopulated nation"
"No middle way on the environment"
Garrett Hardin
"The tradegy of the commons"
David Pimental et al.
"Impact of population growth on food supplies and the environment"
Herman Daly
"Steady state economics"
Kenneth Boulding
"The economics of the coming spaceship earth"


 

Neo-Malthusians in general

Various other papers may be found in: 
NPG Forum on Malthus and population

Copies of a significant number of original papers by Hardin, Ehrlich, Constanza, Postel, etc. can be found at:
"Brain Food" (a page affiliated with dieoff.org)
 

Organizations

Stop Overpopulation!
Zero Population Growth
WorldWatch Institute
Church of Euthanasia
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

TOP
Structuralists


Barry Commoner
"How poverty breeds overpopulation
(and not the other way around)"
"Making peace with the planet"
"The closing circle"
Amartya Sen
"Population: delusion and reality"
"The entitlement perspective of hunger"
Partha Dasgupta
"Population, poverty, and the local environment"
Nathan Keyfitz
"The biologist and the economist"
"The growing human population"
Tom Athanasiou
"Green Romantics"
Adil Najam
"A developing country perspective on population,environment, and development"

TOP
Liberal Economists


Julian Simon
"Population growth is our greatest triumph"
"More people, greater wealth, more resources, healthier environment"
"Population growth is not bad for humanity"
"A reply to my critics"
"The writings of Julian Simon"
Mark Sagoff
"Do we consume too much?

TOP
Others


William Aiken
"The 'carrying capacity' equivocation"
(an ethicist's reply to Garrett Hardin)
Charles Mann
"How many is too many?" (Atlantic Monthly article)
UN Population Information Network
"Population and the environment in developing countries: Literature survey and research bibliography (Part 1, Review of the current research)"

TOP

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