Long-Term Energy Solutions: The Truth Behind the Silent Lie
DOI: 10.1063/1.4797203
A lbert Bartlett’s emotional update of the 1798 essay by Thomas R. Malthus does not mention several contemporary facts.
Recently I was studying some data on modern Russia. Now, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation is experiencing the most massive population decline in recent centuries. Then I looked at Germany, now part of “old Europe.” Particularly in the east, the government is quietly tearing down massive apartment complexes because there are no people to live in them or the people have moved west. And Japan is rapidly becoming the oldest population in the world because of the country’s avoidance of fresh, young faces.
I began to wonder if Bartlett has ever paid attention to Charles Darwin. One of Darwin’s great principles would seem to be that a species that fails to reproduce dies. Does Bartlett really want that to happen to us?
More about the authors
Frank R. Haig, (fhaig@loyola.edu) Loyola College Baltimore, Maryland, US .
