Population

by Charles F. Hohm

Book Overview

Is the planet becoming too crowded? Authors debate population growth, and the potential problems associated with it, such as hunger and environmental degradation, in the following chapters: The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0737702923
• ISBN13: 9780737702927
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Greenhaven Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Balanced introduction to a difficult subject

This is one in a series of excellent books devoted to presenting various positions on controversial issues. Other books look at the abortion question, at AIDS, at poverty, at water use and resources, etc. Here the question is not just Is There a Population Problem? (the subject of Chapter 1) but Is the World's Population Growing Too Fast?; Is Overpopulation Responsible for Hunger, Poverty, and Environmental Problems?; What Are the Effects of Immigration into the United States?; and "What Population Policies Should Be Pursued? (chapters 4-5).Each of the five chapters contains from six to eight essays in answer to the chapter questions. For example, on whether there is a population problem, Editor Charles F. Hohm presents an essay from German demographer Johann Peter Sussmilch, which he entitles, "The State Should Encourage Population Growth," excerpted from a larger eighteenth century work, and an "answer" to that from the English clergyman, Joseph Townsend, also from the eighteenth century. Then there is something from Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population arguing that overpopulation is a serious problem, and then an answer from Frederick Engels, arguing that overpopulation is a myth.The other chapters also contain some historical views, but more often the essays are from moderns. For example there is economist Julian L. Simon's view that we don't have enough people on the planet as well as Rockefeller University professor Joel E. Cohen's counter that "There Are Too Many People on the Planet." Whether there is a shortage of food (or whether an apparent shortage of food is caused by distribution and/or political problems) is debated.I have the 1995 edition of this book in front of me, and it is a fine introduction to the subject; but there is an edition copyright 2000 that features newer arguments including an essay from Pope John Paul II. This is the sort of book that works well when it is kept current. It is an excellent text for young people and those new to the argument.The highlight of this book for me was the essay "Scientific Progress Will Solve the Population Problem" by John H. Fremlin (abridged from his "How Many People Can the World Support?" which appeared in the New Scientist in 1964). In this extraordinary piece Fremlin argues not that the earth might support ten or twenty billion more people, but as science learns to efficiently utilize all sources of available energy including solar and nuclear, Fremlin sees the planet as supporting 15 trillion people within the next 450 years. That's trillion with a "t" folks. At this point the entire earth would enjoy "midday equatorial conditions round the clock" thanks to orbiting solar mirrors with a total area of 100 million square kilometers and the "complete fission of uranium and thorium in about 3 cm depth...or by fusion of deuterium in about 3 mm depth of seawater."But Fremlin is only getting warmed up (so to speak). He goes on to argue that if the average heat in