MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History
“Betting the Future: Population Growth and Resource Scarcity Debates in the
1970s”
Paul Sabin, Yale University
In 1980, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich, famous for his 1968 book The
Population Bomb, made a notorious bet over mineral prices with University of
Illinois economist Julian Simon. The wager served as a proxy for their
competing visions of the future. Ehrlich argued that overpopulation would cause
overconsumption, scarcity, and famine. Simon countered that flexible markets
and new technologies would allow societies to adapt and improve human welfare.
Sabin will interpret this confrontation in the context of the environmental
battles of the 1970s. His examination of the relationship between modern
environmentalism and broader political conflicts, including the 1980 contest
between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, contributes to an ongoing historical
reassessment of the 1970s.
Friday March 18, 2011
2:30 to 4:30 pm
Building E51 Room 095
Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge
Sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and the Program in Science, Technology, and
Society. For more information or to be put on the mailing list contact
[email protected].
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