Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Time Essay: POPULATION EXPLOSION: IS MAN REALLY DOOMED?
THE mathematics of the nightmare always makes it sound inevitable: the population of the world, which required centuries to reach 1 billion, took only 80 years to double that number, and only 41 years more to reach today's 3.7 billion. If the progression continues, it is widely and gloomily predicted by the spiritual heirs of Thomas Malthus, there will be 7 billion people standing in line for their rations in the year 2000. By 2050, perhaps 30 billion will be fighting like animals for a share of the once-green earth.
After the statistics come...
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