Robert Hardaway*
ABSTRACT
Twenty years ago, Praeger Publications of Westport Connecticut published this author’s book “Population, Law and the Environment”,1 in which the case was made for identifying human population expansion as the key environmental issue of our times. This case rested in large part on linking together cultural and legal issues, which theretofore had not always been considered to be related to environmental protection, such as abortion, the rights of women, contraception, immigration, family planning, and policies of economic growth. There have been considerable developments in these areas which have spurred this author to update his book, this time in the form of this article which both condenses the content of his previously published book where apposite (including passages which are incorporated verbatim from his previous work), and updates the most recent data supporting its original premise. The case is renewed herein for linking those areas which continue to be widely ignored or rejected as relevant to environmentalism, while at the same time urging that the environmental movement and the law that supports it expand its current narrow focus on the “A” and “T” factors of Holdren’s2 brilliantly conceived equation (I=PAT), and recognize the more critical “P” component, which in turn is a reflection of how both domestic and international law promulgates and enforces law in the areas identified in this article. The name that the author has adopted for this proposed change of focus is “Environmental Malthusianism.”3 Keywords: Population, Environment, Law, Climate Change
* Professor of Law at the Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, Colorado, United States. This article is reprinted with permission from Sustainable Development Law and Policy, (2014) Volume XIV, Issue 1, American University Washington College of Law.
1. Praeger Publications is now a part of the publishing house of ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California.
2 Although Holdren’s name is used herein to describe the equation, the equation has been recognized as a joint effort of John Holdren, Barry Commoner, and Paul Ehrlich.
3 Although the author has not found any usage of this term in other literature, he claims no credit for its coinage given that it seems such an obvious term to describe the linkage of population to the environment.