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By Selwyn Duke
Released in 1973, the dystopian film Soylent Green portrayed an overpopulated world of 40 billion, with teeming masses enduring food scarcity, poverty, social stratification, resource depletion, urban decay, and environmental collapse.
Oh, all this was supposed to be happening in 2022.
In reality, our global population in 2025 is 8.2 billion, and its growth has slowed and is set to reverse. Moreover, 17-20 percent of our world’s nations (e.g., Japan and Russia) are already experiencing population decreases.
Of course, we don’t expect soothsayer-like prescience from Hollywood, just entertainment. But realize that the ’73 film was influenced by its day’s “scientific” predictions. (See Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb, and other prognostications that bombed.) Now, though, many observers recognize the reality of population collapse — and the problems inherent therein.
And their prescriptions are still errant, too.
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