While millions face hunger, malnutrition, and starvation, theworld's population is increasing by over 225,000 people per day,80 million per year. In many countries, supplies of food and waterare inadequate to support this many people, so the world fallsdeeper and deeper into what economists call the "Malthusiantrap," named for the writer whose work, more than any other,brought attention to the population dilemma. While this idea was neither entirely new nor whollyindisputable, Malthus' clear and forceful statement sounded analarm. Today, many nations and individuals are making efforts tocurb runaway population growth. but for much of the world, theproblem remains unsolved.

Preface to the Second Edition

Introduction

Part I. Influences on Malthus

David Hume·Of the Populousness of Antient Nations(1752)

Robert Wallace·A Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind in Antient and Modern Times (1753)

Benjamin Franklin·Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1755)

Adam Smith·An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

Condorcet·The Future Progress of the Human Mind (1795)

William Godwin·Of Avarice and Profusion (1797)

Part II. Selections from Malthus' Work

An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

An Essay on the Principle of Population: From the Revised Edition (1803-)

Part III. Nineteenth-Century Comment

William Godwin·Of Population (1820)

Francis Place·Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population (1822)

Nassau W. Senior·Two Lectures on Population (1829)

Harriet Martineau·Illustrations of Political Economy(1832)

Friedrich Engels·Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy (1844)

John Stuart Mill·Principles of Political Economy (1848)

Charles Darwin·The Origin of Species (1859)

Karl Marx·Capital (1867)

George Bernard Shaw·Fabian Essays (1889)

Part IV: Malthus in the Twenty-First Century

  A. POPULATION GROWTH IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: A NEW LOOK AT MALTHUS

The United Nations Population Fund·Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change (2001)

Lester R. Brown·The Population Challenge (1999)

William R. Catton Jr.·Overshoot (1982)

  B. POPULATION AND FOOD SUPPLIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Gary Gardner·Shrinking Fields (1996)

Lester R. Brown·Eradicating Hunger: A Growing Challenge (2001)

  C. POPULATION AND WATER SUPPLIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Sandra Postel·Last Oasis (1997)

  D. POPULATION AND ENERGY SUPPLIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel·Food, Energy, and Society (1996)

  E. POPULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich·How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens Our Future (1996)

  F. POPULATION AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Bingham Kennedy Jr.·Environmental Scarcity and the Outbreak of Conflict (2001 )

Lester R. Brown·The Emergence of Demographic Fatigue (1999)

  G. SOME CONTEMPORARY CRITICS OF MALTHUSIANISM

Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset·Beyond the Myths of Hunger (1998)

Eric B. Ross·The Malthus Factor (1998)

Julian L. Simon·The Ultimate Resource (1996)

Pope Paul VI·Humane Vitae (1968)

  H. RETHINKING ENDLESS POPULATION GROWTH

Joel E. Cohen·How Many People Can the Earth Support? (1995)

Garrett Hardin·Nobody Ever Dies of Overpopulation(1993)

Rodolfo A. Bulatao·The Value of Family Planning Programs in Developing Countries (1998)

Mark W. Nowak·Why Population Policy Matters to America (1998)

  J. Kenneth Smail·Remembering Malthus: A Preliminary

  Argument for a Significant Reduction in Global Human Numbers (2002)

Robert Engelman, Brian Halweil, and Dannielle Nierenberg·Rethinking Population,Improving Lives (2002)

  I. THREE SIGNIFICANT POSTSCRIPTS

World Scientists' Warning to Humanity ( 1993)

Statement on Population Stabilization by World Leaders(1985/1995)

Priority Statement on Population (1991)

Selected Readings

Index