Hindsight.
Indeed it is certain, it is clear to see, that the earth itself is more cultivated and developed than in early times … The most charming farms obliterate empty spaces, ploughed fields vanquish forests, sandy places are planted with crops, stones are fixed, swamps are drained, and there are great cities where formerly hardly a hut … everywhere there is a dwelling, everywhere a multitude, everywhere a government, everywhere there is life. The greatest evidence of the large number of people: we are burdensome to the world, the resources are scarcely adequate to us and our needs straiten us and complaints are everywhere while already nature does not sustain us. Truly, pestilence and hunger and war and flood must be considered as a remedy for nations, like a pruning back of the human race becoming excessive in numbers.”
– Quintus Septimus Florens Tertillianus, Roman citizen, circa 200 A.D., when the world population was about 200 million
May 7th, 2004 at 12:14
Wow.
Talk about jumping the gun…
I thought Malthus was the first to really work on this issue. Obviously not!
May 9th, 2004 at 01:55
To be fair, there were only 200 million people AFTER that there pruning back he refers to. At the time of writing, the population of the earth was 4.2 billion people and a cat. A bloody big fat cat that got in the way.
May 12th, 2004 at 17:43
No matter the blog…there is a good chance Saltation shall, at some point, comment…and the likelihood of it making sense is much, much slimmer…;-)