The Quality of Life, Population, and Environment: The Importance of Historical Perspective

Abstract

The past several years have seen the emergence (or, in some cases, reemergence) of a number of arguments that question whether the previous American historical experience of sustained economic and pop? ulation growth can be extended indefinitely into the future. For example, a brief scanning of any major daily newspaper in the United States (say the New York Times) over the past year would produce statements of the following type:1