The Importance of Ebola

[Charles Platt]

I have seen it suggested many times that a good plague would somehow
"solve" the population problem. Unfortunately, this displays a lamentable
ignorance of history. If you look at the world population growth curve,
the greatest outbreak of bubonic plague made just a little notch in the
generally upward, exponential trend. When you have a doubling rate of,
say, 50 years, and you lose, say, 50 percent of the world's population,
very little thought is required to see that you're fairly quickly back
where you started--especially since in the aftermath of a large-scale
plague people might feel a greater psychological imperative to procreate. 

I hate to state the obvious, but "solving" overpopulation in the long term
means only one thing: people have to decide to have fewer children. 

And now I hope this very valuable news group can resume its focus on 
information rather than speculation.
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Charles Platt, 1133 Broadway (room 1214), New York, NY 10010