"Scarcely more than two generations had tasted the fruits of industrialization when the growth of population was still further accelerated by truly effective death control. The role of microorganisms in producing diseases was discovered. In 1865 the practice of antiseptic surgery began. It serves... as a reasonable demarcation of the beginning of an era filled with related breakthroughs in medical technology: hygienic practices, vaccination, antibiotics, etc. The total effect of this recent series of achievements has been to emancipate mankind more... from the life-curtailing effects of the invisible creatures for which human tissues used to serve as sustenance. Like other prey species newly protected from their predators, we have been fruitful and have so multiplied that we have much more than "replenished" the earth with our kind."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ibid., p. 30.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Overpopulation
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Overpopulation
208 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Overpopulation →
Related Quotes
"In 1800, every human on the planet had a corresponding 80 kg of mammal mass in the wild. Wildland mammals outweighed …"
"Energy has been fundamental to our story of growth. The various hockey stick curves over the last century or so are a…"
"Our fossil fuel bonanza has left our ecosystem in a perilous state. We have destroyed vast forests and habitats, poll…"
"The human explosion has accelerated across the millennia, most recently reaching a fever pitch owing to the employmen…"
"Population estimates are usually based on demographic data alone with no consideration of exogenous factors. This is …"
"As if the Enlightenment was not enough, in quick succession we joined another enormous river. One could say that the …"
"Given the Maoist position that a large population was a “resource”, rather than a burden, for the Communist state, it…"
"What did we do with our fossil fuel bonanza? We exploded population by revolutionizing agriculture [and health]. Now …"
"…fossil fuels allowed us to drastically overshoot the natural carrying capacity of the planet, and that bill will com…"
"We have used [fossil fuels] to expand the human enterprise and population, knock down forests, destroy and fragment h…"