The Ultimate Resource 2 / / Julian Lincoln Simon.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Simon, Julian Lincoln,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (778 p.) :; 5 halftones 143 line drawings 13 tables

Arguing that the ultimate resource is the human imagination coupled to the human spirit, Julian Simon led a vigorous challenge to conventional beliefs about scarcity of energy and natural resources, pollution of the environment, the effects of immigration, and the "perils of overpopulation." The comprehensive data, careful quantitative research, and economic logic contained in the first edition of The Ultimate Resource questioned widely held professional judgments about the threat of overpopulation, and Simon's celebrated bet with Paul Ehrlich about resource prices in the 1980s enhanced the public attention--both pro and con--that greeted this controversial book. Now Princeton University Press presents a revised and expanded edition of The Ultimate Resource. The new volume is thoroughly updated and provides a concise theory for the observed trends: Population growth and increased income put pressure on supplies of resources. This increases prices, which provides opportunity and incentive for innovation. Eventually the innovative responses are so successful that prices end up below what they were before the shortages occurred. The book also tackles timely issues such as the supposed rate of species extinction, the "vanishing farmland crisis," and the wastefulness of coercive recycling. In Simon's view, the key factor in natural and world economic growth is our capacity for the creation of new ideas and contributions to knowledge. The more people alive who can be trained to help solve the problems that confront us, the faster we can remove obstacles, and the greater the economic inheritance we shall bequeath to our descendants. In conjunction with the size of the educated population, the key constraint on human progress is the nature of the economic-political system: talented people need economic freedom and security to bring their talents to fruition.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Analytical Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgments for the First Fdition -- Acknowledgments for the Second Edition -- Introduction. What Are the Real Population and Resource Problems? -- PART ONE: TOWARD OUR BEAUTIFUL RESOURCE FUTURE -- 1. The Amazing Theory of Raw-Material Scarcity -- 2. Why Are Material-Technical Resource Forecasts So Often Wrong? -- 3. Can the Supply of Natural Resources-Especially Energy- Really Be Infinite? Yes! -- 4. The Grand Theory -- 5. Famine 1995? or 2025? or 1975? -- 6. What Are the Limits on Food Production? -- 7. The Worldwide Food Situation Now: Shortage Crises, Glut Crises, and Government -- 8. Are We Losing Ground? -- 9. Two Bogeymen: "Urban Sprawl" and Soil Erosion -- 10. Water, Wood, Wetlands-and What Next? -- 11. When Will We Run Out of Oil? Never! -- 12. Todays Energy Issues -- 13. Nuclear Power: Tomorrows Greatest Energy Opportunity -- 14. A Dying Planet? How the Media Have Scared the Public -- 15. The Peculiar Theory of Pollution -- 16. Whither the History of Pollution? -- 17. Pollution Today: Specific Trends and Issues -- 18. Bad Environmental and Resource Scares -- 19. Will Our Consumer Wastes Bury Us? -- 20. Should We Conserve Resources for Others' Sakes? What Kinds of Resources Need Conservation? -- 21. Coercive Recycling, Forced Conservation, and Free-Market Alternatives -- PART TWO: POPULATION GROWTH'S EFFECT UPON OUR RESOURCES AND LIVING STANDARD -- 22. Standing Room Only? The Demographic Facts -- 23. What Will Future Population Growth Be? -- 24. Do Humans Breed Like Flies? Or Like Norwegian Rats? -- 25. Population Growth and the Stock of Capital -- 26. Population's Effects on Technology and Productivity -- 27. Economies of Scope and Education -- 28. Population Growth, Natural Resources, and Future Generations -- 29. Population Growth and Land -- 30. Are People an Environmental Pollution? -- 31. Are Humans Causing Species Holocaust? -- 32. A Greater Population Does Not Damage Health, or Psychological and Social Weil-Being -- 33. The Big Economic Picture: Population Growth and Living Standards in MDCs -- 34. The Big Picture II: LD -- PART THREE: BEYOND THE DATA -- 35. How the Comparisons People Make Affect Their Beliefs about Whether Things Are Getting Better or Worse -- 36. The Rhetoric of Population Control: Does the End Justify the Means? -- 37. The Reasoning behind the Rhetoric -- 38. Ultimately-What Are Your Values? -- 39. The Key Values -- Conclusion. The Ultimate Resource -- Epilogue. My Critics and I -- Notes -- References -- Index