The World’s Population Reaches 8Billion People. Resources Have Grown More Abundant

pa href=https://www.cato.org/people/marian-l-tupy hreflang=undMarian L. Tupy/a /p pAccording to the a href=https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-reach-8-billion-15-november-2022 rel=noopener noreferrer target=_blankUnited Nations/a, the world’s population reached 8 billion people today. Not everyone is excited by the news. As one a href=https://www.footprintnetwork.org/ rel=noopener noreferrer target=_blanksource/a noted, “humans use as much ecological resources as if we lived on 1.75 Earths.”/p pIn a recently released book, ema href=https://www.amazon.com/Superabundance-Population-Innovation-Flourishing-Infinitely/dp/1952223393/ rel=noopener noreferrer target=_blankSuperabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet/a/em, we have analyzed prices of hundreds of food items, metals, minerals, finished goods, and fuels going back to 1850. We found that, contrary to expectations, resources became more abundant, not scarcer./p pOn average, every one percent increase in population corresponded to a one percent price decline relative to wages. That means that every one percent increase in population also corresponded to a five percent increase in personal resource abundance and a 16 percent increase in global resource abundance./p pPersonal resource abundance grew at a rate of 3.1 percent per year, thereby doubling every 22.6 years or so. Global resource abundance grew at a rate of 4.4 percent, thereby doubling every 16 years or so./p pHow is that possible?/p pEvery new human being comes to the world not only with an empty stomach, but also a pair of hands, and, more importantly, a brain capable of intelligent thought and new knowledge creation./p pIn the process of economic development, human beings cause environmental damage, but the new wealth and knowledge that we create also allow us to become better stewards of the planet. That is why all environmental ranking tables are dominated by developed nations./p pDoomsayers concerned about population growth are right to note that the world is constituted of a finite number of atoms – be they of copper or of zinc. But the finitude of atoms (i.e., resources) is largely irrelevant to human well‐​being. What matters is our ability to create new knowledge that combines and recombines those atoms in ever more valuable ways./p pFor example, a humble grain of sand had first given us glass jars, then windowpanes, and, most recently, fiber optic cables. So, new knowledge is not limited by the physical limits of our planet, but by the number of people who are free to think, speak, associate, invest and profit from their ideas and inventions./p pFor more, please visit a href=http://www.superabundance.com/ rel=noopener noreferrer target=_blankwww​.super​abun​dance​.com/a./p p div data-embed-button=promo_block data-entity-embed-display=view_mode:block_content.full data-entity-type=block_content data-entity-uuid=af7bb07f-dbbc-4179-8aa8-a4dd81da5f51 data-langcode=en data-entity-embed-display-settings=[] class=embedded-entity div class=theme secondary book-promo-block book-promo-block--cover d-print-none div class=book-promo-block__cover a href=https://www.cato.org/books/superabundance target=_blankimg width=151 height=227 loading=lazy src=/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_medium_1x/public/2022-08/superabundance-cover.jpeg?itok=pgDGs_av alt=Superabundance cover class=component-image //a /div div class=theme secondary book-promo-block__content h5 class=block__title d-flex mb-4 meta meta--large text-uppercase p-mb-last-child-0 Featured Book /h5 div class=book-promo-block__description p-mb-last-child-0 h3emSuperabundance/em/h3h5emThe Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet/em/h5 pThis controversial and counterintuitive new book examines why population growth and freedom to innovate make Earth’s resources more, not less, abundant./p /div div class=book-promo-block__call-to-action mt-5 a class=d-print-none btn--forward-arrow btn href=https://www.cato.org/books/superabundance More About This Book /a /div /div div class=book-promo-block__tab book-promo-block__tab--1/div div class=book-promo-block__tab book-promo-block__tab--2/div div class=book-promo-block__tab book-promo-block__tab--3 theme secondary/div div class=book-promo-block__tab book-promo-block__tab--4 theme secondary/div /div /div /p