Part 4: Human overpopulation is the most unheard-of issue in America—Hardin’s Laws, Boulding’s Laws

By Frosty Wooldridge

Part 4: Environmental protection agency, Hardin’s Laws, Boulding’s Laws  

For over thirty years, I attended lectures at the University of Colorado where Physics professor Dr. Albert Bartlett lectured and promoted discussion on human overpopulation.  His extraordinary lecture on “Arithmetic, Population and Energy”  can be seen at www.albartlett.org .  He presented it over 1,600 times around the world.   While the world ignored his and many other top scientists in the world, including Dr. Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, in 2010, the population noose tightens around this civilization’s neck.  Other top experts join the chorus such as Richard Heinberg, Dr. William Catton, Jared Diamond, William Ryerson, Dave Paxson, Aldolpho Doring, Dr. Diana Hull and Amanda Zackem.

POPULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has done many constructive and beneficial things,” said Bartlett. “The policies, actions, and leadership of the Agency are crucial to any hope for a sustainable society. In a recent report we read,

“In view of the increasing national and international interest in sustainable development, Congress has asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to report on its efforts to incorporate the concepts of sustainable development into the Agency’s operations. 

“The Report (EPA, 1993) is at once encouraging and distressing. It is encouraging to read of all of the many activities of the Agency which help protect the environment. It is distressing to search in vain through the Report for acknowledgment that population growth is at the root of most of the problems of the environment. Unlike the report of the Bruntland Commission, the EPA report avoids making the allegation that population growth is not the central problem. The EPA report makes only a very few minor references to the problems of urban population growth. 

“In general, with our present social systems, agriculture, sustainable or otherwise, can’t be maintained in the face of urban population growth. In speaking of the New Jersey Coastal Management Plan for the management of an environmentally sensitive tidal wetland, the Report says:

“The project involves balancing the intense development pressures in the area with wetlands wildlife protection, water quality, air quality, waste management, and other environmental considerations. 

“Here we are “balancing” again. In many ways, a series of balances is a way to “Sacrifice the environment in an environmentally sensitive way.” 

In the Pacific Northwest

“The EPA…is an active participant in these discussions, which focus on sustaining high quality natural resources and marine ecosystems in the face of rapid population and economic growth in the area,” said Bartlett.  “These quotations of minor sections of the EPA report make it clear that the EPA understands the origin of environmental problems. Thus it is all the more puzzling that the Agency so carefully avoids serious discussion of the fundamental source of so many of the problems it is supposed to address.

“A proposal for the establishment of a “National Institute for the Environment” (1993) is being advanced. If the proposed institute is to be effective, its mission and charge must include, “Studying the demographic causes and consequences of environmental problems.” 

A PERIOD OF TIME 

“The pertinent definition of “sustain” is “to maintain, or to cause to continue…” The definition suggests that things can be sustained for long periods of time. Thus, when the Bruntland Report speaks of “Future generations” and “into the distant future,” it would seem to mean “for all future generations” or “forever.” 

“In what follows, “standard of living” is to be thought of in terms of the average annual per-capita consumption of goods; “carrying capacity” refers to the number of people that can be sustained. The term “resources” refers to virgin resources, while “goods” can include both virgin and recycled materials.”

LAWS, HYPOTHESES, OBSERVATIONS AND PREDICTIONS 
RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY

“The laws, hypotheses, observations, and predictions that follow are offered to define the term “sustainability” which must be understood to mean, “for many millennia,” said Bartlett. “In some cases these statements are accompanied by corollaries that are identified by capital letters. They all apply for populations and rates of consumption of goods and resources of the sizes and scales found in the world in 1994, and may not be applicable for small numbers of people or to groups in primitive tribal situations.”

The observations may shed light on the problems and on mechanisms for finding solutions to the problems.  The predictions are those of a retired nuclear physicist who has been watching these problems for several decades.  The lists are but a single compilation, and hence may be incomplete. Readers are invited to communicate with the author in regard to items that should or should not be in these lists. In many cases, these laws and statements have been recognized, set forth, and elaborated on by others.” 

GARRETT HARDIN’S THREE LAWS OF HUMAN ECOLOGY 

We start by repeating three laws of human ecology that are given by Garrett Hardin. (Hardin, 1993) These are fundamental, and need to be known and recognized by all who would speak of sustainability.

First Law: “We can never do merely one thing.”

This is a compact statement of one of the major problems of the “effluent society.”

Third Law: The impact (I) of any group or nation on the environment is represented qualitatively by the relation

I = P A T

where P is the size of the population, A is the per-capita affluence, measured by per-capita consumption, and T is a measure of the damage done by the technologies that are used in supplying the consumption. Hardin attributes this law to Ehrlich and Holdren. (Ehrlich and Holdren, 1971)

The suggestion may be made that the Third Law is too conservative. The Third Law suggests that I varies as Pn where n = 1. There are situations where the impact of humans increases more rapidly than linearly with the size of the population P so that n > 1.

BOULDING’S THREE THEOREMS 

These theorems are from the work of the eminent economist Kenneth Boulding. (Boulding, 1971)

First Theorem: “The Dismal Theorem” “If the only ultimate check on the growth of population is misery, then the population will grow until it is miserable enough to stop its growth.”

Second Theorem: “The Utterly Dismal Theorem” This theorem “states that any technical improvement can only relieve misery for a while, for so long as misery is the only check on population, the [technical] improvement will enable population to grow, and will soon enable more people to live in misery than before. The final result of [technical] improvements, therefore, is
to increase the equilibrium population which is to increase the total sum of human misery.”

Boulding continues, “Until we know more, the Cheerful Theorem remains a question mark. Misery we know will do the trick. This is the only sure-fire automatic method of bringing population to an equilibrium. Other things may do it.” 

You can reach Dr. Albert Bartlett at www.albartlett.org

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In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls”, Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG, graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation.  Take five minutes to see for yourself:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE&feature=player_embedded

“Immigration by the numbers—off the chart” by Roy Beck

This 10 minute demonstration shows Americans the results of unending mass immigration on the quality of life and sustainability for future generations: in a word “Mind boggling!”  www.NumbersUSA.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muw22wTePqQ

This is the best website to start:  www.numbersusa.org ; watch Roy Beck’s “Immigration by the Numbers” at 14 minutes. Bi-partisan and very effective. Become a faxer of pre-written letters to your reps to make positive  change.

Visit www.TheSocialContract.com for the best information on what we face as a civilization as to overpopulation, energy, immigration and much more.

Canada www.immigrationwatchcanada.org ; in Australia www.population.org.au and[email protected]; in Great Britain www.populationmatters.org ; and dozens of other sites accessed at www.frostywooldridge.com.   In Florida, www.flimen.org .

Must see DVD: “Blind Spot” www.snagfilms.com/films/title/blind_spot/ , This movie illustrates America’s future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It’s a brilliant educational movie! www.blindspotdoc.com

Must see: Rapid Population Decline, seven minute video by Dr. Jack Alpert-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0

Must see and funny: www.growthbusters.org ; www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXSTrW_dARc
Dave Gardner’s Polar Bear in Bedroom:

growthbusters.org/2010/03/save-the-polar-bear-in-your-bedroom ; Dave Gardner, President, Citizen-Powered Media ; Producing the Documentary, GROWTH BUSTERS; presents Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity, Join the cause at www.growthbusters.org ;760 Wycliffe Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 USA; +1 719-576-5565

Check out this link with Wooldridge on bicycle and Lester Brown and panel discussion:

www.upnorthmedia.org/watchupnorthtv.asp?SDBFid=1631

Tomorrow’s Americaproject on www.youtube.com/contemporarylearning.

Producer: GEORGE A. COLBURNwww.tomorrowsamerica.com

DC: 202-258-4887

Email: [email protected]

Link to www.tomorrowsamerica.com for more discussions on America’s predicament.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

www.starbrightmediacorp.com

www.tomorrowsamerica.com

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Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715