https://mises.org/mises-wire/population-explosion-disaster-never-happened

The Population Explosion Disaster that Never Happened
04/11/2024

I do not hear much talk about world population these days, the way I did growing up in the 1960s and ’70s. People were supposedly starving, dying, with tens of millions more sure to die. The problem back then was that there were just too many, well, people.

Population numbers coming out of China and India were unthinkable, and projections indicated many more people were going to be born into this dire situation. There were over twenty thousand people in my hometown and as far as everyone was concerned, that was enough already!

People were dying! We were told to eat our broccoli and clean our plate because there were starving children in China. Everyone knew that was a stretch of the imagination because we all knew that Chinese people only ate rice.

The book The Population Bomb was published in 1968 by Stanford University’s Paul and Anne Ehrlich. They wrote that hundreds of millions of people would soon die because of hunger in the next decade and there was nothing we could do about it. There were just too many people.

The first Earth Day was held in April 1970 in honor of the earth.

We were told we were ruining the earth. We were overpopulated. And we were going to die. Back then they told us that we were causing a new ice age.

Of course, all of the inflammatory predictions of the Ehrlichs’ bestselling book did not come to pass. Just like “peak oil” never came to pass. Just like all the current predictions are not panning out and must regularly be changed to keep people fixated on the issue.

The problem with the people who make such predictions is that they worship the earth and want to keep it for themselves and don’t want to share it with others. They really want to reduce or eliminate people. They do not care about people or science. Most concerned people have been fooled into these peoples’ agenda.

The current crop of depopulationists hide under the cloak of “climate change.” Such people as Bill Gates, Senator John Kerry, Greta Thunberg, and Klaus Schwab tell us to be terrified of “climate change.”

They want to substitute “sustainability” policies, or we will all face the manmade consequences that include rising sea levels, scorched lands, and all manner of apocalyptic conditions in which we will all surely die.

They want to sustain the earth for the earth’s sake.

A similar but very different policy is “conservationism.” This is a set of individual actions that has the aim of conserving the earth and the resources it contains for the MOST valuable uses of humans, present and future generations. Conservation is the normal condition that humans live in without respect to government policy. It is driven by how all of us value everything.

So, that might mean keeping a valley in pristine natural conditions just for the sake of its view or future use. Or it might mean turning the whole thing into a giant subdivision to house a multitude of families who want to live there. It’s the owner’s choice. When it’s the government’s choice, things always go awry.

California is a good case in point. That state imposes some of the most far-reaching and draconian land use policies in the world. As a result, only a tiny fraction of land is used for human habitation. It now has some of the worst housing conditions in the country, despite all its wealth and supposedly super smart legislature. Its working class is impoverished not by wages or jobs, but by housing costs and commute times.

Now, back to the environmentalists and the global climate-change community. They ask us to accept their demands and that we engage in sustainability by using alternative energy sources and by consuming alternative foods.

What is left unsaid is that these alternatives are poor substitutes for the real things. Alternative energy is both more expensive and less efficient in terms of using up the earth’s resources. Alternative foods are also more expensive and less efficient.

Cows pooping and farting in the fields produce a better taste and more nutrition than you will get from factory-made artificial chicken strips.

Using alternatives, or ersatz production of artificial things, means higher prices and less production of the two things that modern humans need to live: food and energy. Less food and fuel means fewer humans, plain and simple, and they don’t want to talk about that, especially in the less developed countries.

When the Ehrlichs published their book more than half a century ago, there were fewer than four billion people. Now there are more than eight billion people, and thanks to the adoption of free-market policies in India and China, more than two billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty! We did not do that! People today make good livings doing jobs like “social influencer” and “data analyst,” which were unthinkable back in the day, but in a world of eight billion people things like that are possible.

What might be possible in a world of one hundred billion people? Or what problems might be faced in the future with the depopulation-demographic problems in places like Japan and some European countries?

Also, a half century later, none of the alarmist climate predictions have materialized. The world has not frozen over. It has not been turned into a scorching desert. The seas have not risen in a great flood. Climate change has been a total bomb despite all the TV weathermen in the world’s best efforts to tell us otherwise.

This article was recorded on the Minor Issues podcast.

Hello OPP. I am glad to at last have joined this forum. My husband is a member aka LostAggie66 and he has shared many of the posts from here. I will be honest with you. The number oftimes I have seen the names you called my husband I will not tolerate. I am a Proud, Progressive Socialist Liberal who has NEVER Voted Republican and Never will until the GOP starts treating all fellow human beings regardless of sexual orientation, race, religion or any other differences as American citizens. The first person who refers to myself as aLibtard,Communist or any other childish Trumpspeak will not like my reply. As long as you treat me as a person and don't constantly insult me or my views I will be open minded and respectfully respect your views. Whether you are a conservative Republican,Democrat Liberal, Independent whatever.

IMO Donald Trump belongs in Federal Prison. However he will probably not see the inside of ClubFed although he would look good in an Orangejumpsuit washing military ambulances. As far as him being blocked from the ballot there is not enough evidence that he did encourage or support the Jan6 Riot/Insurrection. If such evidence is ever found that he is guilty of supporting or encouraging the protestors to ransack the Capital then he should be removed from the ballot. Now on the subject of the 2020 election HE LOST to Pres. Biden. His continual tantrum that the election was stolen is childish BS. Much like his 2024tantrum that he is being persecuted because of his politics. NO he is being prosecuted for his crimes ranging from corruption to sexual assault and election interference in Georgia.

I also agree that if it can be proved by any member of the current MAGA HOR that Pres. Biden has committed any crime and/or misdemeanors then he should be impeached and tried by the Senate. The fact that his son is a drug addict and convicted felon doesNOT mean his father is a felon, crook Godfather etc. I also do not agree with every thing his admin has done or supports. I do not support the radicals of my party to include the Squad, BLM(the group not the sentiment...White,Brown, Red,Green,Purple w/orange dots people matter. ANTIFA(they are Marxists) trouble makers and not anti-fascists.

If Pres.Biden was to step down due to health before the convention then I would like to see an Open Convention with all candidates eligible. So open that if we need to elect an Octogenarian then we Need Bernie Sanders and Elizaeth Warren as VP. I also don't think VP Harris is a good idea but she is in direct succession as established in the Constitution. I also stand by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as written but with the right of the people to ammend when needed ie: the 2nd. I am a responsible gun owner and user and respect the right of all non criminal Americans to own firearms.

My liberal views are not going to be swayed by any one. I support Pres Biden and see the tasteless disgusting memes posted here as immature and not respecting the office of POTUS. The first meme i see of Pres.Biden or any Democrat being incontinent(ie full of S**T) I will counter with a like treatment of the MAGA childleader because if anyone is incontinent it's donnie boy.

As I stated in the beginning I am Liberal NOT Marxist, Communist, Nazi etc...I did Not Vote for Hillary in 2016 because I think she absolutely failed us in the last yrs she was SecState. I voted for the Green Party then andmay do so again in November. I support our military(ALL of them) but find aggression as destructive. That is the reason I am a lifelong Democrat I hate war seeing too many of our young killed. This goes back to having to see what happened to my family when my older brother(18) volunteered for VietNam. because he wanted to protect his little sisters. He was a Navy Corpsman assigned to the Marines and he was KIA Dec.68. I was 12 and saw the effect his death had on my mother and all of us. I lived seeing alcohol take over her life luckily I was strong enough to avoid the stigma and disease that is alcoholism. Unfortunately neither my first two marriages worked out. The father of my daughter left me when she was in pre school. We divorced and shared custody until she was 18 and chose to live with me. My marriage last year to LostAggie has been very good for both of us. We are friends and now husband and wife. My daughter adores him and when he suggested he wanted to be closer to his family we moved (from PA) Aggie came to PA after we met on line in 2019. We made a visit AL/FL in 2020 to meet some of Charlies daughters(Now mine) We got back to PA one week before shutdown. My daugher and I agreed to leave PA(where we were both born and lived)last summer. We moved to Texas and are 3bluedots in a very red state but we do have liberal friends and fellow democrats. We also have 5 greatgrand children we have not yet seen This includes 5mo twin boys an older brother(4)born in CO and a 10mo girl all in FL. Aggies middle daughter and family live here in Corpus Christi about a mile from us and we see them almost daily.

I think I have rambled enough for now. Just trust me that I do have opinions on many issues that the MAGA majority want to see purged and forgotten as we return to the "glorious 1950s" or maybe even the gay1890s. When women knew their place along with every other non-white adult.(don't even call me racist though because I am white Italian/Polish Lithuanian raised Catholic but now Lutheran woman who thinks it's time for Male white old farts let all Americans share in gov't as well as life in America in the 21st NOT The 19th century.

Pax All, grammyD...Wishing All a Blessed and Safe Easter.

The Summer of 2020 is a good start...and it was BEFORE an election...when OBAMA was president.....hmmmmm.....

Seattle, May - August 2020

Minneapolis - May 28

Houston - May 30

Detroit - May 30

Dallas - May 30

Washington DC - June 1

St. Louis - June 1

Phoenix - June 1

Los Angeles - June 1

New York City - June 3-10

Richmond - June 4

Boston - June 8

Atlanta - June 19

Portland - July 20-August 29

Chicago - August 10

Denver - august 24

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Oh I read it alright, but it's glaringly obvious that TDS "evolved" and is now more common in Leftists jargon than when Esther Goldberg penned her op-ed in The American Spectator. She applied the term to "Ruling Class Republicans" who were dismissive or contemptuous of Trump. We call them RINO's today, folks like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger and others now rejected by the rank and file. TDS today is solidly enshrined, displayed and promoted by your DNC State Controlled Marxist Media Propaganda Bureau's and I'd be delighted to find a single Leftist who is immune to their sinister influence.