Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.
-Thomas Robert Malthus (1798) This famed warning has been widely revived in recent years. Only the prospect of universal nuclear destruction is viewed with more horrified relish by pessimistic social prophets than the prospect of man’s inability to feed an unchecked population. The latest authority to update the Malthusian theory is British Novelist C. P. Snow (The Corridors of Power, The Two Cultures), who is celebrated for his observations on the disparity between the worlds of science and the humanities. Lord Snow issued his warning last week as he delivered the John Findlay Green lecture at Westminster College, Fulton, Mo. (where Winston Churchill made his classic “iron curtain” speech in 1946). In effect, Snow said that Malthus’ gloomy prognostication might be borne out within a generation.
Sea of Famine. “I have to say that I have been nearer to despair this year, 1968, than ever in my life,” observed Snow, who is 63. “We may be moving—perhaps in ten years—into large-scale famine. Many millions of people are going to starve. We shall see them doing so upon our television sets.”
Snow predicted that this “major catastrophe” would happen before the year 2000. “We shall, in the rich countries, be surrounded by a sea of famine, unless three tremendous social tasks are by then in operation.” The tasks: massive grants of food, money and technical aid from rich nations to poor, perhaps amounting to 20% of the well-off countries’ gross national products for 15 years; increased efficiency in food production by poor nations themselves; and new efforts in poor nations “to reduce or stop their population increase, with a corresponding reduction in the population increase in the rich countries also.”
Snow doubts that mankind will make these efforts. Already, he noted, men recoil in horror from the spectacle of famine in India or Biafra, but do little. “We draw the curtains and take care not to listen to anything which is going on in the streets outside,” he said. “We are behaving as though we were in a state of siege.” Even if man’s quantitative needs can somehow be met, Snow doubts that the quality of civilized life can be maintained if—as demographers widely predict—world population doubles to more than 6 billion by the end of the 20th century. “There are already too many people in the world,” he said. “Within a generation, there will be far too many. Within two or three generations—unless we show more sense, good will and foresight than men have ever shown—ordinary human hopes will have disappeared.”
Many demographers and agronomists agree with Snow. Emil Mrak, chancellor of the University of California’s Davis campus, a top U.S. agricultural research center, says simply: “I’ve been saying the same thing for years. I am even afraid we are going to have trouble in this country.” Says Caltech GeoChemist Harrison Brown: “I have no disagreement with Snow.” In line with Snow’s recommendations, the American Assembly, a nonpartisan organization of scholars and statesmen, has recommended a 50% increase in U.S. foreign aid for food development and population control in poor nations.
The agreement, however, is by no means unanimous. Addeke Boerma, director-general of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, argues that though protein supplies may falter, recent advances with high-yield cereals and rice strains will keep the world from mass famine. “The three basic ingredients required are capital, technology and organization,” Boerma argues. “They are becoming available in increasing measure, and I believe that the agriculture of the developing countries is now reaching the point of ‘takeoff.’ The situation remains precarious, but there are no symptoms of a long-term decline in per-capita food production.” If anything, Boerma thinks, the richer countries may soon have serious problems of oversupply.
Wit and Will. Another who does not accept Snow’s dismal verdict is Robert McNamara, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense. Two months ago, in his first speech as head of the World Bank, McNamara catalogued what he called “the terrifying statistics of population growth.” But he added: “There is every reason for hope. In the past few generations, the world has created a productive machine which could abolish poverty from the face of the earth. Who can fail to see the immense prospects that lie ahead for all mankind, if we have but the wit and the will to use our capacity fully?” But that is a big “if” and Snow, rightly, has drawn attention to what might happen should mankind fail to respond.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Donald Trump Is TIME's 2024 Person of the Year
- Why We Chose Trump as Person of the Year
- Is Intermittent Fasting Good or Bad for You?
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- The 20 Best Christmas TV Episodes
- Column: If Optimism Feels Ridiculous Now, Try Hope
- The Future of Climate Action Is Trade Policy
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
Contact us at letters@time.com