Abstract
One of the most important changes that the American people are currently undergoing concerns assumptions about the world around them. These assumptions help constitute a mental map with which to perceive and deal with experience.1 Traditionally, Americans have assumed that the human species could dominate nature, that their ability to change the world was unlimited, and that all problems were solvable. Experience is making these assumptions untenable, and new assumptions are gradually being adopted. The new assumptions emphasize that the human species is part of a complex community of many interdependent animal and plant species on the planet, that interdependence creates feedback within the community and sometimes results in unintended consequences flowing from a given action, and that change and growth have physical and biological limits. These assumptions, which stem from the branch of biological science known as ecology, encourage a recognition of the problems arising from the increase in human numbers, because increased population has created pressures on physical and biological resources. The science of ecology gave rise to these assumptions, which the American people are now beginning to accept, because they constitute an effective means to understand the world. As one observer has noted:
[S]cience is a search for constancies, for invariants. It is the enterprise of making those identifications in experience which prove to be most significant for the control or appreciation of the experience yet to come. The basic scientific question is, “What the devil is going on around here?”2
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S. I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action, 2d ed., 30–32 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964). An illustration of a mental map or identification system that permits human experience to be organized and controlled both in everyday life and in science is that of the Western formulation of time. An unsuccessful attempt to change the Western temporal framework occurred in France between 1793 and 1805; the failure resulted in part from the change required in the mental map of French citizens.
Eviatar Zerubavel, The French Republican Calendar: A Case Study in the Sociology of Time, 42 American Sociological Review 868 (1977).
Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry 85 (San Francisco: Chandler, 1964).
Albert H. Cantril & Susan Cantril, Unemployment, Government and the American People 16 (Washington, D.C.: Public Research, 1978).
Opinion Research Corporation, XXXVI ORC Public Opinion Index 2–7 (September 1978); Riley E. Dunlap & Kent Van Liere, “Commitment to the Dominant Social Paradigm and Support for Ecological Policies: An Empirical Analysis” (revision of paper presented at the 1978 meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems).
See Karl Bauman, Ann Anderson, J. L. Freeman, & G. Koch, Legal Abortions, Subsidized Family Planning Services, and the U.S. “Birth Dearth,” 24 Social Biology 183 (1977). In finding that government funding of already legal contraceptive services does not reduce the birth rate but that the legalization of abortion may do so, the study suggests that the important factor is the legality of birth control.
Peter H. Lindert, Fertility and Scarcity in America 134–35, 170 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978).
See chapter 6, infra.
Josefina Card, The Malleability of Fertility-Related Attitudes and Behavior in a Filipino Migrant Sample, 15 Demography 459, 475 (1978).
I.R.C. § 188. The change permitted deductions for expenditures made beginning January 1, 1972. The Select Committee on Population of the House of Representatives, which existed in 1978, recommended that Congress consider the expansion of financial support for child care facilities. House Select Committee on Population, Final Report, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 44, 51 (1978).
Murray Melbin, Night as Frontier, 43 American Sociological Review 3,4,9-12(1978).
Kathleen Ford, Contraceptive Use in the United States, 1973–1976, 10 Family Planning Perspectives 264 (1978).
Charles Westoff, The Decline in Unwanted Fertility, 1971–1976, 13 Family Planning Perspectives 70 (1981).
Judith Blake & P. Gupta, Reproductive Motivation versus Contraceptive Technology: Is Recent American Experience an Exception? 1 Population & Development Review 229 (1975).
Chen Muhua, Birth Planning in China, 11 Family Planning Perspectives 348 (1979).
World Population: A Global Perspective: Hearings Before the Select Committee on Population, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 516, 521 (1978). Statement of Kingsley Davis.
3 Population and Development: Research in Population and Development: Needs and Capacities: Hearings Before the Select Committee on Population, 95th Cong., 2nd Sess. 488, 525-26 (1978). Second annual report of the National Security Council Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy.
D. C. Jayasuriya, Legal Dimensions of Population Dynamics: Perspectives from Asian Countries 143 (Mt. Lavinia, Sri Lanka: Associated Educational Publishers, 1979).
These years include all of the work of the 92d Congress through the 95th Congress.
Pub. L. No. 95-192, 91 Stat. 1407. By its own terms, the act will expire at the end of 1985. Id. at § 10.
H.R. Rep. No. 95–344, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 7, reprinted in [1977] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 3670, 3673.
Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality 270 (ninth annual report; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1978).
Lester R. Brown, The Twenty-Ninth Day 135 (New York: Norton, 1978).
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 20; Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality, 390, 396 (tenth annual report; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1979).
Lester R. Brown, The Worldwide Loss of Cropland 22–26 (Washington, D.C.: WorldWatch Institute Paper No. 24, 1978); Erik Eckholm, Losing Ground (New York: Norton, 1976). The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95–113, §1511,91 Stat. 913, 1022, created a program to combat soil erosion in the Great Plains region. The legislation was a response to serious wind erosion of 6.8 million acres of land, of which approximately 80 percent was cropland, and to the threat of erosion on an additional 17 million acres. The erosion was partly the result of the cultivation of marginal lands during a drought. The influence of population growth is found in a succinct statement in the report on the bill by the House of Representatives: “Prior to being settled and farmed, the Great Plains suffered only slight erosion as natural grasses provided protection from wind and water erosion.” H.R. Rep. No. 95-348, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 37, reprinted in [1977] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 1704, 1738.
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 20, at 274.
Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1980 209 (101st ed.; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1980).
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 20, at 270, 272.
Pub. L. No. 95-307, 92 Stat. 353.
Pub. L. No. 95-514, 92 Stat. 1803.
General Accounting Office, Public Rangelands Continue to Deteriorate 4 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1977).
Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-514, § 2(3), 92 Stat. 1803;Eckholm, supra note 22.
Pub. L. No. 94-588, 90 Stat. 2949.
Senate Agriculture & Forestry Comm., National Forest Management Act of 1976, S. Rep. No. 94-893, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 9–10, reprintedin [1976] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 6662, 6670.
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 20, at 293, 320-21; Council on Environmental Quality & Department of State, 2 The Global 2000 Report to the President 123–24 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1980).
Erik Eckholm, Planting for the Future: Forestry for Human Needs 5 (Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute Paper No. 26, 1979); Georg Borgstrom, Too Many 1–17 (New York: Macmillan, 1969).
Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality 394 (eleventh annual report; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1980). The sums cited are in terms of purchasing power in 1979 and will be increased by inflation.
See Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality 76–89 (tenth annual report; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1979).
Arnold Reitze, Environmental Law, 2d ed., four-8 (Washington, D.C.: North American International, 1972); Staff Report to the National Comm’n on Water Quality IV-25-IV-30 (Washington, D.C.: National Commission on Water Quality, 1976).
Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Estimates of the Population of the United States to January 1, 1980, Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 878 (1980).
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 35, at 100.
Soil and Water Resource Conservation Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-192, 91 Stat. 1407; Water Research and Development Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-467, 92 Stat. 1305; Saline Water Conversion Act of 1971, Pub. L. No. 92-60, 85 Stat. 159.
Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act, Pub. L. No. 93-320, 88 Stat. 266. Human use has increased salt levels in the Colorado River principally through diverting water to agricultural irrigation; water used for irrigation removes salt from soil and returns it to the river. In addition, municipal and industrial consumption has raised the salinity of the water. S. Rep. No. 93-906, 93d Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in [1974] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 3327,3331.
Borgstrom, supra note 33, at 153, 159.
Ronald Ridker, Future Water Needs and Supplies, with a Note on Land use, in Population, Resources, and the Environment 213, 221-22 (Vol. III of the Research Reports of the U.S. Commission on Population Growth & the American Future, Ronald Ridker, ed.; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t Printing Office, 1972). See Council on Environmental Quality & Department of State, supra note 32, at 156.
Pub. L. No. 95-616, 92 Stat. 3110.
Pub. L. No. 93-205, 87 Stat. 884.
Act of Dec. 15, 1971, Pub. L. No. 92-195, 85 Stat. 649.
Erik Eckholm, Disappearing Species: The Social Challenge 6 (Washington, D.C.: WorldWatch Institute Paper No. 22, 1978); Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 20, at 328, 334.
Eckholm, supra note 46, at 18.
Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality 182–84, 324–27 (fifth annual report; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1974). Quotation from page 325.
Pub. L. No. 92-583, 86 Stat. 1280.
Pub. L. No. 92-522, 86 Stat. 1027.
Pub. L. No. 92-532, 86 Stat. 1052.
Pub. L. No. 93-627, 88 Stat. 2126.
Pub. L. No. 92-340, 86 Stat. 424.
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 36, at 450.
Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, Pub. L. No. 92-583, § 302(c), 86 Stat. 1280. Accord, House Merchant Marine & Fisheries Committee, Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, H.R. Rep. No. 92-707, 92d Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in [1972] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 4144, 4147.
See Edward Hudson & Dale Jorgenson, Energy Prices and the U.S. Economy, 1972–1976, 18 Natural Resources Journal 877 (1978).
Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Quality 298 (eighth annual report; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t Printing Office, 1977).
In 1977, the less-developed countries contained three-fourths of the world’s population and had a rate of natural increase three times faster than that in the more-developed countries. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the numerical increment in less-developed regions will be about ten times larger than that in the more-developed regions. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, World Population 1977 15 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1978); Council on Environmental Quality & Department of State, supra note 32, at 12.
Committee on Mineral Resources and the Environment, National Research Council, Mineral Resources and the Environment 26 (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1975).
National Commission on Supplies & Shortages Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93–426, 88 Stat. 1167. In section 720(b), Congress explicitly notes an increasing dependence on foreign countries for vital natural resources and an increasing frequency of resource shortages.
Pub. L. No. 94-580, 90 Stat. 2795.
House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee, Solid Waste Disposal Act, H.R. Rep. No. 94-1491, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 3, reprinted in [1976] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 6238, 6241.
Donald Brobst & Waiden Pratt, Introduction, in United States Mineral Resources 1, 7 (Donald A. Brobst & Waiden Pratt, eds.; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1973).
E.g., Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-182, 87 Stat. 707; Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-319, 88 Stat. 246; Geothermal Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-410, 88 Stat. 1079; Solar Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-473, 88 Stat. 1431; Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976, Pub. L. No. 94-413, 90 Stat. 1260; Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-87, 91 Stat. 445; Energy Tax Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-618, 92 Stat. 3174; National Energy Conservation Policy Act, Pub. L. No. 95-619, 92 Stat. 3206; National Gas Policy Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-621, 92 Stat. 3350.
House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee, Energy Policy and Conservation Act, H.R. Rep. No. 94-340, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 1, reprinted in [1975] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 1762, 1763.
Brobst & Pratt, supra note 63, at 8.
Patrick Nolan, Size and Administrative Intensity in Nations, 44 American Sociological Review 110 (1979).
Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-234, 87 Stat. 975; Disaster Relief Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-288, 88 Stat. 143;Community Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-31, 91 Stat. 169; Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-113, § 1103, 91 Stat. 953.
National Weather Modification Policy Act of 1976, Pub. L. No. 94-490, 90 Stat. 2359.
Pub. L. No. 95-367, 92 Stat. 601.
Id. at §2(1).
Pub. L. No. 95-124, 91 Stat. 1098.
Id. at § 2(2).
Commission on Population Growth & the American Future, Population and the American Future 41 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1972).
Thomas Espenshade, Zero Population Growth and the Economies of Developed Nations, 4 Population & Development Review 645 (1978).
Some Economic Consequences of a Declining Population, 4 Population & Development Review 517, 522 (1978).
Dianne Wolman, Findings of the Commission’s National Public Opinion Survey, in Aspects of Population Growth Policy 469, 480 (Vol. VI of the Research Reports of the U.S. Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, Charles F. Westoff & Robert Parke, Jr., eds.; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov’t. Printing Office, 1972). The question asked was “Do you agree or disagree with those who claim that population growth helps keep our economy prosperous?” Among all respondents, 52 percent disagreed, 36 percent agreed, and 12 percent registered no opinion. The proportion disagreeing was substantially higher for whites than for blacks (53 and 38 percent, respectively) and increased with educational level (from 45 percent among those who had not graduated from high school to 66 percent among those who had graduated from college).
Act of October 27, 1972, Pub. L. No. 92-597, 86 Stat. 1319; Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-203, 87 Stat. 839; Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-567, 88 Stat. 1845; Comprehensive Employment and Training Act Amendments of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-524, 92 Stat. 1909; Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-568, 92 Stat. 2425; Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-93, 91 Stat. 627.
Pub. L. No. 95-523, 92 Stat. 1887.
Id. at §205(a) (1).
Bureau of the Census, supra note 24, at 30.
Id. at 407.
Pub. L. No. 95-390, 92 Stat. 755.
House Post Office & Civil Service Committee, Federal Employees Flexible and Compressed Work Schedules Act of 1978, H.R. Rep. No. 95-912, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 11, reprinted in [1978] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 3300, 3309.
I.R.C. §§ 151(e), 152(a), (1979) (amended by Pub. L. No. 95-600, § 102(a), 92 Stat. 2771).
Senate Finance Committee, Revenue Act of 1978, S. Rep. No. 95-1263, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 46, reprinted in [1978] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 6761, 6809.
See generally Hudson & Jorgenson, supra note 56.
Brown, supra note 20, at 161-91.
State & Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972, Pub. L. No. 92-512, 86 Stat. 919.
Senate Finance Committee, State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972, S. Rep. No. 92-1050, 92d Cong., 2d Sess, reprinted in [1972] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 3874, 3882.
Pub. L. No. 95-24, 91 Stat. 56.
Id. at § 202(b).
Pub. L. No. 95-557, 92 Stat. 2122.
Pub. L. No. 95-625, 92 Stat. 3538.
Pub. L. No. 94-580, 90 Stat. 2795.
House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee, Solid Waste Disposal Act, H.R. Rep. No. 94-1491, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 3, reprinted in [1976] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 6238, 6240. The Supreme Court has held that, because the Constitution assigns the power to regulate interstate commerce to Congress, a state cannot prohibit the disposal of waste on privately owned land within its jurisdiction simply because the waste has been brought from another state. City of Philadelphia v New Jersey, 437 U.S. 518(1978).
Anthony Downs, Housing Markets and Big-City Population Losses, in House Select Committee on Population, 3 Consequences of Changing U.S. Population: Population Movement and Planning, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 218, 222 (1978); James D. Williams & Andrew Sofranko, Motivations for the Inmigration Component of Population Turnaround in Nonmetropolitan Areas, 16 Demography 239 (1979).
Jay Forrester, Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems, 73 Technology Review 1, 6 (1971).
Pub. L. No. 93-449, 88 Stat. 1364.
Pub. L. No. 94-50, 89 Stat. 249.
Hudson & Jorgenson, supra note 56.
Task Force on Homeownership, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Housing & Community Development of the House Committee on Banking, Finance & Urban Affairs, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 900 (1978). Statement of Gary Baxter.
Id. at 460 (statement of Dale Stuard) and 617 (statement of Michael Matrix).
Id. at 900 (statement of Gary Baxter).
Id. at 481 (statement of Fred Case). As the result of the natural increase of the population following World War II, approximately 875,000 new households were formed annually between 1970 and 1978, creating a substantial demand for new housing and more energy. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Projections of the Number of Households and Families: 1979 to 1995, Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 805, at 5 (1979).
Pub. L. No. 95-113,91 Stat. 981.
See House Agricultural Committee, Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, H.R. Rep. No. 95-348, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 103, reprinted in [1977] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 1704, 1804.
Pub. L. No. 95-113,91 Stat. 958.
Id. at §5(a), 91 Stat. 962.
National School Lunch & Child Nutrition Act Amendments of 1973, Pub. L. No. 93-150, 87 Stat. 560; National School Lunch Act & Child Nutrition Amendments of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-166, 91 Stat. 1325; Child Nutrition Amendments of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-627, 92 Stat. 3603. Accord, Act of November 5, 1971, Pub. L. No. 92-153, 85 Stat. 419.
Child Nutrition Amendments of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-627, § 3, 92 Stat. 3611.
Brown, supra note 20, at 128-91; Brown, supra note 22; Lester R. Brown, By Bread Alone (New York: Praeger, 1974); Eckholm, supra note 22.
James Smith & Finis Welch, No Time to Be Young: The Economic Prospects for Large Cohorts in the United States, 7 Population and Development Review 71 (1981); Richard Freeman, The Effect of the Youth Population on the Wages of Young Workers, in House Select Committee on Population, 2 Consequences of Changing U.S. Population: Baby Boom and Bust, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 767, 775 (1978); Lindert, supra note 6, at 216-59.
Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Characteristics of the Population Below the Poverty Level: 1978, Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 124, at 51, 63 (1980).
Lindert, supra note 6, at 214-15; Dennis De Tray, Child Schooling and Family Size: An Economic Analysis 36 (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation, 1978); see Judith Blake, The Only Child in America: Prejudice versus Performance, 7 Population and Development Review 43, 50-51 (1981).
Noise Control Act of 1972, Pub. L. No. 92-574, 86 Stat. 1234; Quiet Communities Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-609, 92 Stat. 3079.
Senate Public Works Committee, Noise Control Act of 1972, S. Rep. No. 92-1160, 92d Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted m [1972] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 4655, 4656; Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 36, at 537-38.
Council on Environmental Quality, supra note 36, at 544.
Pub. L. No. 92-516,86 Stat. 973.
Senate Agriculture & Forestry Committee, Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972, S. Rep. No. 92-838, 92d Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in [1972] U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News 3993, 3995-98.
Pub. L. No. 92-218, 85 Stat. 778.
Erik Eckholm, The Picture of Health 33 (New York: Norton, 1977).
Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act, Pub. L. No. 93-247, 88 Stat. 4; Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-415, tit. III, 88 Stat. 1129.
Walter Gove, Michael Hughes, & Orner Galle, Overcrowding in the Home: An Empirical Investigation of Its Possible Pathological Consequences, 44 American Sociological Review 59 (1979).
Forrester, supra note 97; see Albert Chevan, Family Growth, Household Density, and Moving, 8 Demography 451 (1971).
William R. Catton, Jr., Overshoot (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980).
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Barnett, L.D. (1982). Population and Law. In: Population Policy and the U.S. Constitution. Kluwer · Nijhoff Studies in Human Issues. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2718-1_2
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