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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Thomas malthus - The Untold Story

Paul Ehrlich, often called alarmist for dire warnings about human harms to the Earth, believed scientists had a responsibility to speak out

Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich, who died March 13, 2026, in Palo Alto, California, was a scientific crusader whose dire predictions about population growth, world hunger and environmental collapse made headlines and sparked controversy for decades.

The Conversation

Misunderstood Malthus: The English thinker whose name is synonymous with doom and gloom has lessons for today

No one uses “Malthusian” as a compliment. Since 1798, when the economist and cleric Thomas Malthus first published “An Essay on the Principles of Population,” the “Malthusian” position – the idea that humans are subject to natural limits – has been vilified and scorned. Today, the term is lobbed at…

The Conversation

Are there billions more people on Earth than we thought? If so, it’s no bad thing

A study suggests the global population has been undercounted – but we shouldn’t let the overpopulation alarmists win the argument, says academic and writer Jonathan Kennedy

The Guardian - UK

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Population explosions and declines are related to the stability of the economy and the environment

For 200 years, we’ve been warned of unchecked population growth and how it leads to environmental instability. On the other hand, today some countries face decreasing populations, alongside increasing proportions of elderly people, causing economic instability.

The Conversation

Fossil fascism used to demonize migrants

Ecofascists have a long history of supporting the environment when it empowers racist policy

Salon

It won’t cost much to make free school meals a universal right

A new push to offer free school meals across the globe won’t end world hunger but it’s a very good start

The Guardian - UK

Darwin must stay in Indian school textbooks

If the strength of science lies in its ability to stand the test of critical inquiry, then science classrooms must inculcate the embracing of critique

The Hindu

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The worldwide population boon

An easy way to start a long, heated debate is to mention global population. Thomas Malthus famously ignited furious arguments in the 19th century when he warned that, absent fertility-control policies, exponential population growth would outpace improvements in agriculture and cause recurrent bouts of famine and pestilence. Industrialisation would postpone…

Bangkok Post

Rousseau, Malthus, and Thanos Were Wrong

The authors of Superabundance make a strong case that more people and industrialization mean a richer, more prosperous world.

Reason

Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley: More People Means More Wealth

The Superabundance authors make a compelling case that the world is getting richer for everyone.

Reason

Thanos Was Wrong: More People Means More Wealth

Superabundance explains why a world of 8 billion people is infinitely richer than one with 1 billion.

Reason

How evolution pushed human poulation to eight billion

Humans are not especially fast, strong or agile

Wales Online

Global population hits 8 billion, but per-capita consumption is still the main problem

The world population has just hit a new record: 8 billion. As is often the case, there are heated debates about the planet’s so-called “carrying capacity” – the total number of people who can live on Earth sustainably. Experts are generally divided into two camps. There are those who argue…

The Conversation

8 billion people: how evolution made it happen

November 15 2022 marks a milestone for our species, as the global population hits 8 billion. Just 70 years ago, within a human lifetime, there were only 2.5 billion of us. In AD1, fewer than one-third of a billion. So how have we been so successful?

The Conversation

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The Conversation

'Too many people, not enough food' isn't the cause of hunger and food insecurity

Nearly one in three people in the world did not have access to enough food in 2020. That’s an increase of almost 320 million people in one year and it’s expected to get worse with rising food prices and the war trapping wheat, barley and corn in Ukraine and Russia.

The Guardian - UK

Sir Tony Wrigley obituary

Economic and demographic historian who transformed the view of the industrial revolution

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