Unquestioned belief in the virtue of “living lightly on the Earth” also had certain less-than-salutary effects on population patterns.

The Zero Population Growth movement that arose during the heyday of Counterculture was fueled by the dire predictions of scientists such as Dr. Paul Ehrlich.    Ehrlich’s “Doomsday” lecture was famous at the college I attended, and it regularly packed large lecture halls with general-interest observers like me.

Upon hearing this lecture, I was actually struck as much by its weaknesses as I was by its conclusions, since it was based largely on predictions about the actions of governments—an area in which Ehrlich had no special expertise. 

I felt at the same time, though, that it would be unwise to completely dismiss his points on the basis of these shortcomings.  It seemed only prudent to pay heed to the warnings of a whole wave of noted scientists like Ehrlich, and I formed (and later acted on) a personal belief that the responsible thing to do would be to have no more than two children.

Many of my peers in the developed world came to similar conclusions, and also went on to act on them.  Since not everyone marries or is capable of having children, the net effect was to send the populations of many European countries, and of Americans of European origin, into decline.

Meanwhile, nobody in the Third World was paying much attention to the likes of Dr. Ehrlich, and people there kept producing babies at full capacity.  The predicted failure of the so-called Green Revolution in agriculture never came to pass, and the planet’s population grew wildly beyond the limits that Ehrlich had described as sadly iron-clad.

Eventually, European countries found themselves with too few people within their own populations to fill all the jobs that needed doing, and began admitting large numbers of guest workers.  Among these were Mohammed Atta, a key figure in the planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks, as well as large numbers of less striking, but similarly alienated and disaffected transplants.

The net effect of the words of people like Dr. Ehrlich was thus to set many of the peoples of the world who were best able to care for additional offspring down a path toward becoming genetic and cultural footnotes.

At this point, it may be reasonable to wonder if lemmings regard us with the same sad bemusement with which we have traditionally contemplated them.