The human population on Earth has quadrupled in the past century. It is degrading the capability of Earth’s natural systems to support us. Mathematically, that astonishing growth must stop. How it will stop, and at what level and condition, is thoroughly obscure, but there are changes afoot….
Continue ReadingClick here for a downloadable, printable PDF version NPG REPRINT Adversaries, naturally, tend to regard each other as not just wrong, but morally wrong. Those of us in the population movement tend to see the selfish motives in those who would encourage more immigration — and more population growth — to compete with our own workers and overtax our resources …
Continue ReadingClick here for a downloadable, printable PDF version NPG REPRINT NPG has published over 140 NPG FORUM and NPG FOOTNOTE papers over the past 27 years. Most of them are fading from memory because they were topical or simply because of the mass of writing that assaults us all. Some of those papers, however, addressed concerns that are still very …
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Click here for a downloadable, printable PDF version An NPG Forum Paper by Lindsey Grant “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” – Economist Kenneth Boulding, 1977 If there were one message I could imprint on the American mind, it would be this: Perpetual physical growth is impossible on a …
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I recently ran across the following OpEd by Senator Harry Reid, the current Senate Majority Leader, in the Los Angeles Times. It is of particular interest in light of the current Senate consideration of S744, a proposal to rewrite the immigration laws to legalize illegal immigrants and increase the flow of immigration.
Continue ReadingThere has been a welter of celebratory stories in the popular press claiming that, because of the advent of fracking, our energy problems are over, that we are on the way to ending our dependence on foreign energy sources, and that – as a consequence – any worries about the limits to growth and the transition from fossil fuels are no longer relevant. I will present a less ecstatic analysis.1
Continue ReadingClick here for a downloadable, printable PDF version Money talks, very loud, in American politics. I have pointed out before that American immigration policy is largely set by entrepreneurs seeking cheap labor, not because most people want it.1 In fairness, however, let me say that there is a substantial body of immigration advocates who believe, quite sincerely, that unchecked immigration …
Continue ReadingIf over the past three decades the United States had deliberately set out to create unemployment, it could hardly have done a more thorough job. The sources of the problem lie in our immigration policy, foreign trade policy, the failure to deal with rising productivity, and our reliance on public and private debt. I will suggest specific solutions. They require a fundamental change in our national thinking to recognize that go-go economic growth is no longer possible at this stage in history.
Our present unemployment problem is not transitory, and it is not confined to the United States. It is much more intense in many countries, particularly the poorest ones, and that in turn will lead to more intense migratory pressures. The more prosperous countries – not just the United States – will need the discipline to match their populations and their policies to their job opportunities, their resources and their food supply. They will need to develop and enforce effective controls over migration, trade and debt to survive amidst unprecedented challenges.
Continue ReadingClick here for a downloadable, printable PDF version box size=”large”Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking” in the popular literature; “fracing” in some technical journals) is a technique for expanding gas and oil production. It is dramatically raising expectations for future gas and oil production, and technological optimists are hailing it as the answer to fears of a decline in world fossil energy production. …
Continue ReadingThe United Nations Population Division on May 3rd released its 2010 world population projections. The study is the best available collection of current world demographic data, but the projections, as usual, are something of a parlor game. They involve questionable and highly optimistic assumptions about fertility and mortality. They ignore other studies that identify external forces that will shape population growth. They assume political …
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