As discussed in Section 10.3, in terms of public policy neo-Malthusians would advocate for population control, adjustment of per capita consumption to a level considered to be environmentally sustainable, and promotion for increased reliance on technologies that are environmentally benign.

Furthermore, as a group, neo-Malthusians tend to favor the "command-and-control" approach to achieving their environmental policy objectives mainly because of the deep mistrust they tend to have toward market-based policy regimes.

Taking the above narratives of the neo-Malthusian worldview at face value, one may be inclined to conclude that neo-Malthusians have sound policy aspirations but that the unrealistic nature of their policy prescriptions are their undoing. In other words, neo-Malthusians by-and-large champion good ideas but they are bad messengers of their ideas. Do you agree with this portrayal of neo-Malthusian policy aspirations and mishaps? Why, or why not? Explain.

Data from Section 10.3

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The era after the Second World War was known for spectacular economic and population growth. During the same period, what emerged were worrisome signs of the health and integ- rity of the natural environment. Water and air pollutions were emerging as serious problems in many major industrial cities. Furthermore, the significant increase observed in the prod- ucts from chemical processing industries and, in particular, the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture were making the pollution problem (because of their toxicity) ominously threatening. This apparent fear of environmental misuse and abuse was forcefully articulated by the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962). Carson's defense of the environment was not based on the romantic feeling she might have had toward nature. She was a scientist who studiously collected the necessary data to clearly and systematically explain the insidious damaging effects that human-made chemicals-particularly pesticides such as DDT-have had on the natural world. Most importantly, it was Carson's vividly imaginative portrayal of the barren landscape that made this publication so instrumental in establishing the modern environmental movement: the landscape where no birds sang. In addition to concerns about industrial toxic waste and their devastating effects on the environment, it was in the 1960s that many scholars began to sound the alarm over the dan- ger associated with a rapid rate of human population growth, exceeding 2 percent annually in many parts of the world (a doubling of population in 35 years or less). A human population that stood at 2 billion in 1930 had reached 3 billion by 1960. This was a startling increase in population when one noticed human population first hit the 1 billion mark in about 1800. In other words, it took many thousands of years for the world's population to reach its first billion, 130 years to reach its second billion, and 30 years for the next billion.