PREFACE

             There's lots of good news, and it's getting even better.  My

        half of this book contains solid evidence that several "environ-

        mental" matters which may scare you really are not to be feared;

        they are not what the public thinks them to be.

             These are the purposes of my side of the debate:  First - to

        tell important truths because it is fun to tell and hear them (as

        long as one's interests are not threatened).  Second and more

        serious - to show you that when you develop new technology, build

        new goods, and expand the scope of our creative activities, you

        are on the side of the angels - you are promoting human improve-

        ment, and the quality of life.  Our economic activities generally

        create more than they destroy.  Hence we should encourage freedom

        and enterprise rather than fettering opportunity and throttling

        down the rate of progress.  Productive people and organizations

        should walk tall with pride and get on with their jobs, rather

        than skulk around with a guilty conscience at befouling our

        environment.

             The topics I deal with here are a small set of the conven-

        tional "green" beliefs that are massively contradicted by the

        scientific evidence.  If these data make you question the common

        wisdom about how our society is doing in these particular cases,

        perhaps you will also review your thinking about the entire set

        of related issues, and recognize that across the board our human

        situation is getting better rather than getting worse.  Perhaps

        you will also consider that if the issues discussed - which in

        the recent past were considered insuperable problems - turned out

        to be non-problems after we had time to gather the facts about

        them, it is not unlikely that the same fate will occur to the

        more recently publicized "green" issues - the ozone layer, the

        greenhouse effect, acid rain, and their kin - which we have not

        yet had time to understand thoroughly.

             My work on population economics has evolved organically over

        the decades.  Therefore, this book draws heavily upon my previous

        articles and books - especially The Economics of Population

        Growth (1977), The Ultimate Resource (1981), Population and

        Development in Poor Countries (1992), and Population Matters

        (1990).  Indeed, there are at least two sentences in the text

        that were first written in 1969 and have continued to appear in

        successive evolutions of this set of ideas (just as there are

        vestiges in our bodies of some much less-developed species that

        existed long eons before homo sapiens.  This does not mean that

        we are just made-over amoebae or monkeys, and this book is not

        just a makeover of any previous book, but it is the outgrowth of

        them.)  And in turn the forthcoming revision of The Ultimate

        Resource will contain new material from this volume.

             Additional citations and references to the professional

        literature and other documentation may be found in my technical

        books and articles.