UN: The Sky Is Falling

Contact:     <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 

 

 

Washington, D.C., March 31, 2005—Malthusian alarmism is back in the news again, with the United Nations Environment Program claiming on Wednesday that humanity has already used up two-thirds of the world's resources. 

 

“They're at it again.  This is simply the latest in a series of doom-mongering underestimates of resources coupled with a stubborn refusal to recognize the role of human ingenuity in solving such problems,” said CEI Senior Fellow Iain Murray. 

 

Previous examples include the Club of Rome's 1970 screed The Limits to Growth and Paul Ehrlich's prediction of massive starvation, The Population Bomb.

 

“The public has grown tired of these Malthusian malcontents constantly crying wolf,” said <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Murray, “which is probably why the public no longer ranks the environment in the top ten issues it is concerned about.

 

“If we concentrate on policies that will lift the world's poor up to the standard of living enjoyed in the West, that will lead to the sort of environmental protection we see in the West,” Murray continued.  “Any other approach prolongs both poverty and the sort of environmental degradation these people are supposedly concerned about.”