MALTHUS' MAIN THESIS STILL HOLDS 



Robert C. Cook 



Dr. Nolan's main theme is the "effect" of science and technology on 

 the "conservation" of natural resources; or rather, perhaps, their 

 effect of making such conservation unnecessary. Tom Nolan and I 

 have never seen eye-to-eye on this subject. In raising some questions 

 regarding the "miracles of technology" and otherwise in attempting 

 to capsule vigorous dissent in limited space, I hope I shall not sound 

 too brusque. We love each other, but sometimes from opposite corners. 

 The lush benefits of technology have been limited to a very small 

 proportion of the world's population. The 6 per cent who live in the 

 United States have been blessed far beyond any other nation on earth. 

 The success of applied physical science in the western world (exclud- 

 ing Latin America) invites the dangerous illusion that "science," as 

 virtually a deified abstraction, "has all the answers." This can lead us 

 to forget that we humans are part of an ecosystem that includes the 

 biological world, the social-cultural world, as well as the physical 

 world. This confidence in the god Science may lead to a dangerous 



ROBERT C. COOK, scientist and editor, is Director of the Population 

 Reference Bureau and editor of the Journal of Heredity and the Population 

 Bulletin. He is also lecturer in biology at the George Washington University 

 and lecturer in medical genetics at the Medical School of that University. He 

 is author of Human Fertility: The Modern Dilemma, and is a frequent con- 

 tributor to technical journals and popular magazines. He was born in Wash- 

 ington, D.C., in 1898, and studied at George Washington University and the 

 University of Maryland. 



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