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The doomsayers have been making these predictions for decades, and they have always been wrong.
Today, the average person in the world eats more calories of food than ever before, has better access to clean drinking water than ever before, has more square footage of housing than ever before, has more access to medical care than ever before, is better educated than ever before, owns more material possessions than ever before, and has a longer life expectancy than ever before.
Countries that support private property rights, freedom of contract, free market pricing, and free trade are doing quite nicely. Every country in the world that has adopted these policies, and held on to them, has become rich. 50 years ago Hong Kong and Singapore were third world couintries. After they adopted these economic policies, they became very wealthy in just a few decades.
The growing and selling of food is a business. In every country that meets all 3 of these conditions, there is an abudnant supply of food: #1 There exists private property rights regarding farmland. #2 There are no government price caps on the price of food. #3 The country has free trade. Every country in the world that meets all 3 of these conditions has an abundant supply of food.
Third world countries aren't poor because they have too many people. Instead, they are poor because they don't have the necessary legal structures and economic policies that are necessary for the creation of wealth.
75% of the world is covered in water to an average depth of 2 miles. And we have the technology of desalinization. We also have sewage treatment and other such types of technologies. The biggest obstacle to getting enough clean water to people is bad government policies that keep people poor, and government price controls on water that discourage water suppliers from investing in the necessary technolgy to clean the water and get it to where it is needed.
The U.S. will grow as much food as it takes to meet the demands of paying customers. If 50 billion paying customers wanted to buy food, then that's what the food industry would make. We have the technology of hydroponic farming, and we have the technology to build 100-story skyscapers. Combining these two things would easily enable us to grow enough food to feed 100 billion people without increasing the amount of land that is used to grow the food on.
Known oil reserves are bigger now than ever before. The world will never run out of oil. If oil ever really did start to become scarce, then its price would rise, and people would reduce their use of oil, and seek out cheaper substitutes. Long before the world ever comes close to running out of oil, people will have stopped using it, because they will have switched to a cheaper substitute.
Overfishing only happens in public bodies of water. On private fish farms, overfishing never happens. In fact, on private fish farms, fish populations are exploding.
Overlogging only happens on public land. On private tree farms, land owners plant more trees than they cut down.
The prices of iron, gold, copper, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, tin, and lead have all been getting lower and lower, which means that these things have become more and more abundant.
The doomsayers claim that India's poverty is caused by overpopulation. They are wrong. 100 years ago, India had a much smaller population than it does today, and it was still poor then.
Today, Hong Kong's population density is 20 times higher than India's. But Hong Kong's per capita GNP is 100 times higher than India's. Hong Kong is a capitalist country, so people there create lots of wealth, and so they are rich. But India is bogged down by too many government regulations, too much government red tape, and too much socialism, so the government prevents people from creating wealth, and so the people remain poor. If India would adopt Hong Kong's economic policies, then India would become very wealthy within a few decades.
The doomsayers claim that Africa's poverty is caused by overpopulation and lack of natural resources. The doomsayers are wrong. Most African countries have low population densities. And any geology textbook will show you that Africa is very rich in natural resources. Africa is poor because of bad economic policies, not because of overpopulation or lack of natural resources.
Here are some books that I recommend for anyone who wants to learn more about this:
"The Ultimate Resource 2" by Julian Simon
"It's Getting Better All The Time" by Julian Simon and Stephen Moore
"Earth Report 2000" by Ronald Bailey
"The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg
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