“Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism... of sexism... of religious intolerance... of war... of gross economic inequality. But if you don't solve the population problem, you're not going to solve any of those problems.”— Paul R. Ehrlich
“A hundred years ago, there were one-and-a-half billion people on Earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity.”— David Attenborough
“Basically, then, there are only two kinds of solutions to the population problem. One is a 'birth rate solution,' in which we find ways to lower the birth rate. The other is a 'death rate solution,' in which ways to raise the death rate–war, famine, pestilence–find us.”— Paul R. Ehrlich
“To ecologists, the single most important question is: how many people can the Earth support?”— Paul R. Ehrlich
“Every person who is added to the population puts a burden on the environment and on the life-support systems of the planet.”— Paul R. Ehrlich
“You can't just look at the number of people. You have to look at their consumption.”— Paul R. Ehrlich
“The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.”— Garrett Hardin
“A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.”— Garrett Hardin
“It is a mistake to think that we can control the breeding of mankind in the long run by an appeal to conscience.”— Garrett Hardin
“The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.”— Thomas Malthus
“Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.”— Thomas Malthus
“The constant effort towards population, which is found to act even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased.”— Thomas Malthus