"Living Within Limits"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the focus on population control in Hardin's book, "Living Within Limits." Hardin's theme about the Earth's limitations on its ability to sustain life, and the technological advances that are placing more and more demands on this ability, is reviewed and critiqued. The paper discusses the data Hardin gathered to give credence to his theory and his conclusions and findings. Several different arguments of Hardin's critics are also presented.

From the Paper:

"Garrett Hardin's work "Living Within Limits" was created to send a message of conservatism and awareness to people. Garrett Hardin's central theme in his work is that human beings need to live within their limits. His point in writing the book is to emphasize that the world naturally adjusts to population growth by impeding it or helping it thrive, depending on the current state of it's carrying capacity. According to Hardin, people need to be more conscious of the world's carrying capacity, which is reaching critical limits. Modern technological advances have allowed populations of people who might ordinarily have passed away, to survive. This de-naturalization of the order of nature has caused a critical crisis. Hardin very selectively in his work points out what he would refer to as the "superfluous population" of poor people, that are now living longer and expanding due to international relief efforts. He frowns upon such activity, claiming the environment can't support such unchecked growth."

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