Population, Law and the Environment

A point-counterpoint challenge of the views expressed by Vice President Al Gore in Earth in the Balance, this important study questions current assumptions about the cost and effectiveness of environmental laws and policies, revealing the crucial link between programs of population control and long-term environmental goals. Governmental policy on the environment, as well as private environmental action, has typically been curative and reactive in nature–directed towards cleaning up past disasters and limiting the types and amounts of pollutants emitted. But what is the cost-effectiveness of such policies at a time when the population of the world continues to expand at an exponential rate? And what should be the role of population control in environmental policy? Robert Hardaway explores these issues and questions, refocusing attention on the importance of population growth to environmental quality. Synthesizing contemporary population theories in the context of environmental policy, Hardaway relates population, law, and the environment to abortion, immigration, education, and economic regulation.