Word: malthusian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...serious situation that has been severely aggravated by drought in parts of Africa and India. In Bucharest last month, a United Nations conference of demographers, scientists and government planners from 141 nations held ten days of acrimonious discussions about how to combat this 20th century version of the old Malthusian nightmare (TIME, Sept. 9). Naturally, not much tune or interest was expended on the contrary trend toward lower birth rates among the industrialized nations...
...Sahelian countries, in Greece, Cyprus, Chile, Vietnam and countless other countries around the world people are dying while the United States pursues capitalistic ventures meant to buttress its high materialistic standards of living. And Heilbroner awaits the "negative factors" (the Malthusian reapers--war, malnutrition, epidemics) that will eventually correct the Western way of thinking...
...those numb spirits. Here, Heilbroner charts the three major challenges of the not-too-distant future: overpopulation, impending nuclear holocaust, and environmental destruction. Perhaps none of these issues will scare anybody, but the supportive evidence should. Overpopultion in developing countries seems most assuredly to be heading toward a grim Malthusian reckoning: death from starvation and malnutrition will be the only checks on these peoples' birth rates. In those countries which are not outright dictatorships, only a kind of militaristic socialism will be able to enforce a strict birth-control...
...lines on the Malthusian chart are ominous: if the present birthrate continues, someday-perhaps as early as 2025-there will be more people than the earth can feed, given its present technology. Photos by earth satellites reveal that the world's most productive land is already cultivated, convenient water sources already tapped and nearly all grazing capacity already in use. Marine biologists worry that the sea, once regarded as a nearly unlimited source of cheap protein, has been overfished. To bring marginal farmland into use round the world would require a massive investment beyond the means of the underdeveloped...
...region's six nations, therefore, may be confronting a bleak Malthusian future in which the most basic needs of their populations will fatally outstrip the productive potential of the land. A U.S. intelligence analyst speculates, "We don't know if the Sahel countries will even be here in ten years...