The Ostrich Factor Our Population Myopia

About this book

Garret Hardin, one of the leading thinkers on the problem of overpopulation, and the originator of the concepts of `the tragedy of the commons' and `lifeboat ethics', addresses the arguments from economists about continued `sustainable' growth in a gracefully written extended essay. Demonstrating the innumeracy and basic ecological ignorance of leading economists who have been apostles for unlimited growth, he addresses the taboos and hard issues that frequently are avoided in most short-term considerations of human population levels. This book epitomizes and builds upon Hardin's earlier book, Living Within Limits, and seeks to lay out the practical steps that humankind must take quite early in the 21st century for the long-term survival of civilization.

Contents

1. The Pursuit of Objectivity; 2. Tertullian's Blessing; 3. How to Lie with Learned Words; 4. Foundations of Science: By Right, or By Default?; 5. The Stormy Marriage of Economics and Ecology; 6. Consequentialism: Nature's Morality; 7. Natural Selection: God's Choice; 8. Altruism; 9. Coercion; 10. Diseconopmies of Scale: Ostrich Myopia; 11. The Dream of One World; 12. Russell's Theorem; 13. A Martian View of Malthus; 14. Equity, Equality and Affirmative Action; 15. Multiculturalism: For and Against; 16. Ambivalent Value of Growth; 17. The Extended Reach of Gresham's Law; 18. Summary: Can Our Ostriches Find the Will?

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