MAINTAINING THE CLIMAX 103 



such as contraception, abortion, infanticide, execution, suicide, mur- 

 der, sterilization, continence, and war. 



War results, in many cases at least, from a failure to exercise the 

 other controls effectively. This mass combat reduces the population 

 to the point where competition is eased for a time. It must be recog- 

 nized that food is not the only resource for which man will fight, but 

 a good case can be made for the statement that overpopulation is the 

 primary cause of war. We find ourselves constantly dealing with 

 relativities. What is overpopulation in Germany is not necessarily 

 overpopulation in an equal area of India. It is the unsatisfied demand 

 for resources which determines the point where overpopulation occurs. 



The point at which the available resources cease fully to satisfy 

 the biologic and cultural demands of the population is the point at 

 which population should be stabilized if destructive competition 

 is to be avoided, and if the accepted quality of the individual is to 

 be maintained. 



The plant world sets an absolute ceiling on animal population at 

 any given time. Under a condition in which modern man, with his 

 technical means for altering the landscape, keeps pushing against 

 the food ceiling, the conditions of climax cannot be maintained. India 

 is a good example. The mechanization of agriculture and improved 

 transportation, introduced by the British, increased food production 

 and distribution ; and, in an automatic population response, millions 

 of additional Indian mouths appeared. They lived long enough to 

 eat up the increase. The average individual is little or no better fed 

 than before the British came, but the land is being destroyed by 

 erosion and over-grazing faster than ever, due to the greater drain on 

 fertility to feed the additional millions. 



Living Standard and Resources. The living standard may be de- 

 fined as the amount of goods and services which the individual can 

 secure from his environment. The average for a country may be 

 found by dividing the total goods and services available by the popu- 

 lation. There are only two ways of raising the average. Produce 

 more per person, or reduce the population without reducing produc- 

 tion. We cannot avoid the word "produces," because the supply 

 must be kept coming. 



Primitive man existed on a low standard of living because his tech- 

 nology was primitive. He could take from the environment only that 

 which his hands and simple tools could adapt to his use. Iceland to- 

 day is a democracy in a poorhouse. The people are intelligent; tech- 

 nology is available to them ; but the environment offers little to which 

 technology can be applied. 



Here are the two ceilings to standard of living: (1) the level of 

 applied science, (2) the supply of resources. In the United States 

 we have a high level of both. Furthermore we have a people who 

 want an ever increasing standard. We have an extraordinary desire 

 for it, nurtured by past experience, advertising, education, and many 

 forms of publicity which keeps constantly before us the alluring pos- 



