University of Virginia Library

World Population Doubles

Given the present rate at which
the population is increasing, the
population of the United States will
increase by 50 percent in the next
30 years (to over 300 million). The
population of the world will double
in the next 35 years.

The environmental consequences
of this rapid growth are
grim. We have reached the point
that massive famines are imminent,
because agricultural production
cannot possibly keep pace with the
multiplying population. As Dr.
Ehrlich points out, "The United
States has all but exhausted her
store of surplus grain. Last year she
shipped one quarter of her wheat
crop, nine million tons, to India. A
massive famine was prevented,
although the threat persists today,
made temporarily less ominous by a
good crop year. But every month,
the Indian population increases by
an estimated one and one-half
million. In another ten years it
would take the entire grain production
of the United States to save
India from famine."

In their book "Famine 1975,"
William and Paul Paddock contend
that the United States soon will no
longer be able to export enough
grain to prevent widespread famine
in other parts of the world. The
Department of Agriculture is more
optimistic, and predicts that that
day will not come until 1984.

Nor is the United States itself
immune from the population disaster.
Dr. Wayne Davis, writing in
"The New Republic" of January
10, 1970, points out that "Our
economy is based upon the
Keynesian concept of a continued
growth in population and productivity.
It worked in an underpopulated
nation with excess resources.
It could continue to work only if
the earth and its resources were
expanding at an annual rate of 4 to
5 percent."