Our Threatened Freedom

Are We Over-Polluted and Over-Populated

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 148-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 148

Dictation Name: Vol. L - Part 05 - Are We Over-Polluted and Over-Populated

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Are we over-polluted and over-populated? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

A few years ago I wrote a paperback entitled ‘The Myth of Over-Population’, a book which is still in print. It was a delight therefore to find a more thorough study of the subject, Dr. Julian L. Simons, ‘The Ultimate Resource’. Dr. Simon documents the fact that we are not running out of farmland or food. Because of increased production, much farmland is returning to forests, wild life areas and recreational use. The world’s food production is growing faster than the population, we are not running out of any natural resources, and in fact our known reserves are increasing dramatically. Instead of a diminishing energy supply, we have more and cheaper energy ahead of us in the future. Pollution has been decreasing steadily for some years, and population growth is not the reason for pollution.

Population density does not create biological nor psychological problems. The standard of living improves wherever population increases. Immigration is beneficial and illegal aliens actually pay in more by taxes than they ever receive as welfare, and so on and on.

Dr. Simon not only documents his case, but for example offers to wager 10,000 dollars, that raw materials will not be scarcer in the future than they are now. Dr. Simon states that he once believed the myths of over-population, dwindling natural resources, and so on. However, when he investigated the subject thoroughly, he found the reverse to be true.

The cry of over-population and pollution is not new, it goes back at least to Plato. Plato’s answer to this idea was a controlled and planned society. Today those who propagate the myth of over-population have a like solution, their planning and controls. The myth has built it into a convenient answer, statist controls to solve the supposed problem. The result is the death of freedom.

This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.