As The World Welcomes Its Seven Billionth Human: Reflections On Population, Law, And The Environment

Abstract

Twenty years ago, Praeger Publications of Westport Connecticut published
this author’s book “Population, Law and the Environment”,1
 in which the
case was made for identifying human population expansion as the key environmental issue of our times. This case rested in large part on linking
together cultural and legal issues, which theretofore had not always been
considered to be related to environmental protection, such as abortion, the
rights of women, contraception, immigration, family planning, and policies
of economic growth. There have been considerable developments in these areas which have spurred this author to update his book, this time in the form
of this article which both condenses the content of his previously published
book where apposite (including passages which are incorporated verbatim
from his previous work), and updates the most recent data supporting its original premise. The case is renewed herein for linking those areas which
continue to be widely ignored or rejected as relevant to environmentalism,
while at the same time urging that the environmental movement and the law
that supports it expand its current narrow focus on the “A” and “T” factors
of Holdren’s2
 brilliantly conceived equation (I=PAT), and recognize the more
critical “P” component, which in turn is a reflection of how both domestic
and international law promulgates and enforces law in the areas identified in
this article. The name that the author has adopted for this proposed change
of focus is “Environmental Malthusianism.”