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Recent reading
Jan. 4th, 2018 04:26 pmThe Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
I read and reread these obsessively when I was young, but it was in Swedish (the old Swedish translation, which is widely regarded as...idiosyncratic). A couple of years ago I read The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time in the original, and now I followed up with this one. Usually I forget details of books I've read and rediscover them on reread, but here I remember so many details. It's better in English in general, but some of the poetry I imprinted on too hard in Swedish to change now.
Too Many People? by Ian Angus and Simon Butler
My dad has started doing research on population issues, so I'm looking into it. I tend to agree with him that overpopulation is a potential issue, but we differ as well: he is against immigration from poor countries into rich ones on environmental grounds since those immigrants then start consuming more resources. I find this hypocritical because it assumes that rich people have more right to over-consume resources to start with.
Anyway. This book is a left-wing perspective, claiming that all the ills ascribed to overpopulation now are actually due to social and economic structures. Also, that when "populationists" say we can solve the environmental crisis just by adjusting population and not changing the social/economic structure, they are wrong. I do completely agree with the latter! They also say that family planning is often coercive, which is obviously an issue.
I find them not as convincing when they dismiss the possibility of overpopulation becoming an issue (for example, difficulties of feeding everyone in the future). They say that "carrying capacity" depends on so many factors that it's impossible to calculate. Sure, but doesn't that mean it could be lower than we think as well as higher? And we don't know how much climate change will affect food production. Also I think we might have overpopulation issues now--look at this image. Is it really okay that we and our domesticated animals so completely dominate among the land mammals?
So in total, I feel like they avoid some difficult issues, even as this was definitely worth a read. There was a awesome essay on Thomas Malthus explaining how he 1) didn't say what most people think he said, 2) was wrong in his predictions, 3) was politically loathsome [to me].
I read and reread these obsessively when I was young, but it was in Swedish (the old Swedish translation, which is widely regarded as...idiosyncratic). A couple of years ago I read The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time in the original, and now I followed up with this one. Usually I forget details of books I've read and rediscover them on reread, but here I remember so many details. It's better in English in general, but some of the poetry I imprinted on too hard in Swedish to change now.
Too Many People? by Ian Angus and Simon Butler
My dad has started doing research on population issues, so I'm looking into it. I tend to agree with him that overpopulation is a potential issue, but we differ as well: he is against immigration from poor countries into rich ones on environmental grounds since those immigrants then start consuming more resources. I find this hypocritical because it assumes that rich people have more right to over-consume resources to start with.
Anyway. This book is a left-wing perspective, claiming that all the ills ascribed to overpopulation now are actually due to social and economic structures. Also, that when "populationists" say we can solve the environmental crisis just by adjusting population and not changing the social/economic structure, they are wrong. I do completely agree with the latter! They also say that family planning is often coercive, which is obviously an issue.
I find them not as convincing when they dismiss the possibility of overpopulation becoming an issue (for example, difficulties of feeding everyone in the future). They say that "carrying capacity" depends on so many factors that it's impossible to calculate. Sure, but doesn't that mean it could be lower than we think as well as higher? And we don't know how much climate change will affect food production. Also I think we might have overpopulation issues now--look at this image. Is it really okay that we and our domesticated animals so completely dominate among the land mammals?
So in total, I feel like they avoid some difficult issues, even as this was definitely worth a read. There was a awesome essay on Thomas Malthus explaining how he 1) didn't say what most people think he said, 2) was wrong in his predictions, 3) was politically loathsome [to me].
