When I was at FSU back in the early 1970s (yeah, I am that old), I took a course in Environmental Politics. In the course we studied several books written by highly regarded futurists such as The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich (1968) and The Limits to Growth (1972) by the Club of Rome, a team of seventeen computer scientists. It was a very interesting class.
Ehrlich’s book predicted that by the end of the 20th Century the world’s population would have outgrown its capacity to feed, clothe, and shelter everyone. He believed that by the middle 1980s there would be mass famine, disease, and environmental destruction in large portions of the world due to overpopulation.
The Club of Rome used computer projections and complex mathematical equations to predict how five essential resources of the world were rapidly headed toward critical points of exhaustion. They predicted that global Industrial output per capita would reach a peak around 2008, followed by a rapid decline. They argued that global food per capita would reach a peak around 2020, followed by a rapid decline. They stated that global economic services per capita would peak around 2020, followed by a rapid decline. And they argued that global population will reach a peak in 2030, followed by a rapid decline. Of course the computers they used were less powerful than your hand held calculator.
Other articles and lectures we studied warned that, because of these grave environmental factors, by the end of the 20th century the world would be in utter and irrevocable chaos. Certain areas of the third world would be suffering hunger, disease, and war leading to total breakdowns of society in those nations (those areas, they said, included India, Pakistan, China, South America, and most of Africa).
These prognostications were widely publicized in the mid-20th century to alarm people to what they saw as the growing worldwide crisis to come in the 21st century. Even some Christian authors and speakers used those frightening statistics to contend that these are the end times and that Jesus must be coming soon to save the world. Now, I certainly believe Jesus is coming again, but I do not approve using questionable statistics to claim the time is near. Jesus said His coming could be anytime so we are to always be ready.
In any case, those doomsday predictions did not come to pass. The world is not facing mass exhaustion of resources. There is not mass starvation and famine except in a few areas which is caused, not by lack of food but by diabolical political leaders. There is actually plenty of food available due to the “Green Revolution” of the late 20th century wherein new methods of food production and distribution were developed globally.
And while the world population is now at about 8 billion, experts now say the growth is nowhere near a crisis level. Likewise, many countries’ economies have flourished due to the return of the free enterprise system in places formerly stagnated by socialism and communism. Conversely, those countries that have recently embraced socialism (eg.: Venezuela) are the ones now facing economic ruin.
So what is my point here? Just that, though we are all enduring a time of serious public health danger, it could have been a lot worse. If the prophecies of the 1970s doomsayers had come true, the coronavirus epidemic would seem like a minor blip on the crisis radar. But they did not happen, so we can be thankful that we are actually living in one of the best eras of history. We will get through this present trauma and, if we trust in God (and that’s the key!), we will return to a state of relative peace and prosperity. As Christians we should remain positive and demonstrate our confidence in God that He is in control.
I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together. (Psalm 34: 1-3 NIV)