The Best Ten
Population quotes
"The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical
construct."
E.O. Wilson
"We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been
rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves."
Arnold Joseph Toynbee
"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."
Kenneth Boulding
"'Sustainable growth' is an oxymoron"
Albert Bartlett
"Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive [overpopulation]. Convenience and
decency cannot survive [overpopulation]. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only
declines, it disappears."
Isaac Asimov
"Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose
long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population,
locally, nationally, or globally?"
Albert Bartlett
"Smart growth destroys the environment. Dumb growth destroys the environment. The only difference is that 'smart
growth' does it with good taste. It's like booking passage on the Titanic. Whether you go first-class or steerage,
the result is the same."
Albert Bartlett
"The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come
into balance. Each man and woman - and each nation - must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face
of this great problem."
Lyndon B. Johnson
"What is the greater danger - nuclear warfare or the population explosion? The latter absolutely! To bring about
nuclear war, someone has to DO something; someone has to press a button. To bring about destruction by
overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values-there is no need to do
anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally - and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing."
Isaac Asimov
"Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of
overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we posses. What is lacking is not
sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the
billions who are its victim."
Martin Luther King Jr.
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