Dr. Garrett Hardin: Overpopulation, Survival and Morality

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HARDIN: That's right. Exactly. For example, when Guatemala had an earthquake, it did no harm to send them some food and blankets and so forth ... because that event was a crisis. It wasn't Guatamala's public policy to have earthquakes.

Whereas Bangladesh—with its 86 million people in an area the size of Iowa—is really a hopeless case. That nation is in the middle of a continuing crunch, and so we can't possibly keep Bangladesh a float. To even attempt to do so would be—in effect—forcing greater suffering upon those future generations that will inhabit the same territory.

PLOWBOY: A concern for the future of mankind seems to be at the center of most of your ideas. Yet many peoplefolks who are concerned about ecology will, when pushed very hard, fall back upon the theory that the human race itself is expendable ... as long as life on earth—in the form of some other species—continues.

HARDIN: Sure, I've heard that argument ... many times. You know something, though, I'm not ready to surrender We future to that "other species". I happen to be egotistically—if that's the right word—interested in the human race. I rather have an affection for humanity. I'd like to see us continue for a while.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you'd like to ex, plore more of Garrett Hardin's ideas, check your local bookstore or library for the following volumes:

1. Managing the Commons edited by Garrett Hardin and John Baden (W.H. Freeman and Company, 1977).

2. Stalking the Wild Taboo by Garrett Hardin (William Kaufmann, Inc.).

3. Exploring New Ethics for Survival: The Voyage of the Spaceship Beagle by Garrett Hardin (Penguin Books, 1972).

4. The Limits of Altruism: An Ecologist's View of Survival by Garrett Hardin (Indiana University Press, 1978).

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