Dr. Edward Osborne Wilson is the Pellegrino  University Research Professor in 
Entomology for the Department of Organismic and  Evolutionary Biology at 
_Harvard  University_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University) 
=====================================================================
From: _Minnesotans for Sustainability_ 
(http://www.mnforsustain.org/nopc_optimum_population.htm) , Jun. 1, 1992
_[Printer-friendly  version]_ 
(http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/prn_diversity_of_life.19950601.htm) 

THE RAGING  MONSTER UPON THE LAND IS POPULATION GROWTH

By E.O. Wilson

The following is a quote from "The Diversity  of Life", by E. O.
Wilson, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton and Company.  This section
appears on pages 328-29 of the paperback edition.

"The  raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its
presence,  sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To
say, as many do,  that the difficulties of nations are not due to
people but to poor ideology  or land-use management is sophistic.

"If Bangladesh had 10 million  inhabitants instead of 115 million, its
impoverished people could live on  prosperous farms away from the
dangerous floodplains midst a natural and  stable upland environment.
It is also sophistic to point to the Netherlands  and Japan, as many
commentators incredibly still do, as models of densely  populated but
prosperous societies. Both are highly specialized industrial  nations
dependent upon massive imports of natural resources from the rest  of
the world.

"If all nations held the same number of people per  square kilometer [as do 
the Netherlands and Japan], they would converge in  quality of life to 
Bangladesh rather than to
the Netherlands and Japan, and  their irreplaceable natural resources
would soon join the seven wonders of  the world as scattered vestiges
of an ancient history.

"Every nation  has an economic policy and a foreign policy. The time
has come to speak more  openly of a population policy. By this I mean
not just the capping of growth  when the population hits the wall, as
in China and India, but a policy based  on a rational solution of this
problem: what, in the judgment of its informed  citizenry, is the
optimal population, taken for each country in turn, placed  against the
backdrop of global demography?

"The answer will follow  from an assessment of the society's self-
image, its natural resources, its  geography, and the specialized long-
term role it can most effectively play  in the international community.
It can be implemented by encouragement or  relaxation of birth control
and the regulation of immigration, aimed at a  target density and age
distribution of the national population.

"The  goal of an optimal population will require addressing, for the
first time,  the full range of processes that lock together the economy
and the  environment, the national interest and the global commons, the
welfare of the  present generation with that of future generations. The
matter should be  aired not only in think tanks but in public debate.
If humanity then chooses  to breed itself and the rest of life into
impoverishment, at least it will  have done so with open eyes."

Note: This quote does not constitute an  endorsement by E. O. Wilson
for any particular political course of action. It  is simply a
reflection of his views on the subject of optimum population, at  the
time they were written. However, on March 21, 1995, Mr.  Wilson
officially endorsed the _National Optimum Population  Commission (NOPC)
proposal_ (http://www.mnforsustain.org/nopc_proposal_vp_letter.htm) , which 
would  establish a process for determining the
optimum, sustainable population of  the United States.







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