Customer Reviews

Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would give this book 99 stars if I could. Garrett Hardin, most famous for his essay 'The Tragedy of the Commons' (look it up on Wikipedia), intellectually evicerates anyone who would be so foolish as to think that overpopulation is NOT a problem. Nearly every human ill can be attributed to the simple phrase 'too many people and too few resources,' and Hardin attacks this issue from every angle. As a self styled 'ecological conservative' Hardin attacks both liberal democratic and traditional conservative ideology.

I thought I knew a little bit about 'real' economics until I read this book, boy was I wrong. If, like me, you thought that Freakonomics was cutting edge and savvy then you would definitely love this book. Hardin clearly has a firm grasp on what economics is actually about. He throws everything at you - natural selection, Thomas Malthus, carrying capacity, demographics, Unmanaged Commons and so much more that this book is sure to open your eyes to the growing problem around us.

The only negative thing (hence the -1 star from 100) I can say about the book is that there is little continuity or flow to it. Rather than any continuous theme, it seems more like his lecture notes stuck together in some kind of topical series. Besides that, I highly highly recommend everyone read this book - sadly though, I am a realist and know that few will (to society's detriment).

If you like this book, you will like Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed; or if you liked Collapse, then you will like this book.

This book is essential reading. As someone lucky enough to have called Garrett Hardin my friend, I was once with him at one of his book signings in Santa Barbara, California. As two rather prosperous looking young women rushed by his display table, one said to the other: "`Limits'--I don't like it!" After which Hardin turned to me with a twinkle in his eye and said, "You see, she just summarized my whole problem." But one of the things that Professor Hardin is still teaching us, through his books and his students, is that once we accept the fact that the world has real ecological limits--for example, we stop assuming that we can cram a quarter-billion people into America, or that affordable substitutes for finite resources like oil and topsoil will be generated magically by the marketplace--the quality of our lives will actually improve. It is something like the little boy who has many scattered ambitions, from cowboy to Superman, upon reaching maturity being able to focus in on the adventure of passionately pursuing life's real possibilities. In his own life Hardin was anything but grim. Garrett Hardin just wanted to help our society grow up and, as said in Corinthians, put away childish things.

A book about population and worldly limits would be uninteresting, most people would say. Not so about this book. Garrett Hardin puts it strait to the point, with no bull or flowery language. This is good especially for me, because science is not particularly my strongest area of intrest. The author puts the scientific facts in everyday language. In this book Mr. Hardin exaust every possibility for counter theories on population growth. I recommend this book to anyone that will be living in the next century. I feel it almost to be a duty to know what is in store for this planet if kept at this current pace.

1st edition, reissued (1995), 311 pages

This is another of the twenty books that Charlie Munger recommends in the 2nd edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack (which I cannot recommend more highly). When a very widely read and highly effective thinker like Munger gets to eighty years old and recommends a list of just twenty books, I think one would be justified in expecting all of them to be pretty good.

Even so, as I make my way through his list I find myself pleasantly surprised at just how good some of them are. The clarity of thought Hardin demonstrates in this book is simply superb.

There is an important difference comparing this book to most others. Because so much of his subject matter (the subtitle is: `Ecology, Economics and Population Taboos') is smeared over by taboo and emotion, Hardin appears to have decided that in order to deal with this problem he also needs to demonstrate how to think properly.

Thus it is really two books in one: a manual on how to think effectively and a treatise on his chosen subject. For example, he hammers home the importance of default positions to provide the foundation for critical judgement (in economics: there's no such thing as a free lunch; in psychology: reward determines behaviour; in ecology: and then what?).

I am left with a feeling of gratitude towards both Munger and Hardin - without either of whom I would not have read this marvellous book.

Reading this book was a revelation. In clear and precise prose, Hardin articulated all the feelings I'd had after years of observing people and their behavior. In the same way overly zealous Christians force the bible upon non-believers, I press this book and its ideas upon others. If everyone were to read this one single book and adhere to its simple and logical tenets, the world would be a reasonable and content place. What is even scarier than the future word we are going to inherit due to the people who impose misguided policies upon others solely to feel good about themselves is the fact that NO ONE outside of universities knows of this man or his books. I occasionally discuss his most famous essay The Tragedy of the Commons with some of the students in my college classes, and even though they all freely admit that his arguments and reasoning are irrefutable, they still think he's wrong because they "don't like" what he's saying. They offer no response or logical counter offer, they just "don't like it." Sadly, these people vote and shape our world, and the majority of my community unfortunately feels the same. If you have any interest in learning better and more productive ways of making choices and viewing the world regardless of the attractiveness of those guidelines, I cannot recommend this book enough.

Overpopulation is the reality that multiplies every malady and problem
that afflicts society. Unfortunately, society "chooses" to ignore any
serious consideration of the population question. Politically and
religiously the topic is a hot potato. Hardin gave decades to the
rigorous analysis of this benign enemy of our race. The intensity
of every ill that plagues the nations would be substantially lessened
if we would come to grips with the hard reasoning of Hardin's scholarship
and objectivity.

The problem of population is one of regulating human behavior. He explains several concepts:

1- Cowboy vs spaceship economics.
2- The Malthus demostat.
3- Exponential growth at a small rate and the carrying capacity of Planet Earth
4- Our world is finite
5- There will never be a perpetual motion machine

A great thinker on ecology and human population.

Though the main emphasis is on the population sustaining aspects of our environment and planet, one should not miss other economical, numerate, and ecological insights that the sharp mind of Garrett Hardin provides with this edition, and in all of his other writings. As a follow-up (in my view) to his excellent Filters of Folly, Hardin again demonstrates his sharp insights on a multitude of endeavors that just don't relate specifically to population.

To name a few excellent anecdotes which with full relevance of sharp thought include such topics as economic discussions on scale factors, the human nature of foxes and hedgehogs to grasp the big idea, compound interests as the eighth wonder, Islamic thoughts on usury, the law of diminishing returns, to the fact that "One can never merely do one thing", and more...

Therefore, whether you consider yourself an Economist, Ecologist, Environmentalist, or just your average Autodidact, one can can surely benefit from Hardin's thoughts. Highly recommended.

I must first say I have not finished reading the book. Part of the reason its that I always start again while Im half way through.

This books educates you, in the highest sense of the word, and I am not talking about having to make your mind up about any stand in population control that may be in direct confrontation with your religious beliefs. This book is not about that.

It educates because it teaches you logical thinking, fallacies, numerative, narrative and ecological thinking, history of economic thought, of philosophy of progress. All in chunk-bit sizes, so I would say that even with a university degree, this book has made re-think, re-explore and adequate my thought to a multiple of tools I have not used in a long time.

Its most profound method, which I have not seen in de Bono and the like, is how to address critical issues by:

- Chosing the right words (Rhethoric has been the most overused tool)
- Chosing the right numbers (Please read What the Numbers Tell)
- Chosing the right system of growth (if you decide to do something, see the consequences please!!!)

By reading history, you can see all type of blunders that have resulted form not using in balance the following tools. History? take a look around you, we are not better of than our forefathers eventhough now we can have this tools to guide us.

Since this is a book that teaches how to think, I can clearly see now how it can be so underrated and not be required reading at all levels. Maybe, because the theme of population is brought on, and due to the taboos we have about it, as well as our hopes, etc. this can overcloud the relevance as an educational tool.

WARNING: Reading this book will make you physically ill. This subject has worried me for a good number of years and this book moves the timeline up a great deal.