Special Report
Malthus’s Quarreling Children
Two versions of a tired argument are at loggerheads at the Sierra Club.
(Page 2 of 2)
Neither side is correct. Although the U.S. population is now 280 million, population growth has slowed to just 4.5 percent a year since 1995 and will likely reach just 394 million by 2050 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Meanwhile the nation’s urban areas alone make up only 2.6 percent of total land mass according to 2000 Census data.
Sierra also fails to consider real causes of environmental problems in developing nations such as the lack of free markets, property rights, and economic development. These will lead to the creation of middle classes, which, in turn, will advocate better living conditions, and voluntarily restrain birth rates.
Watching this internal debate over two wrongs, however, will continue to be a blast.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
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