Volume 39, Number 16 · October 8, 1992
The Fifth Freedom
By M.F. Perutz
The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse: The Autobiography of Carl Djerassi
by Carl Djerassi
Basic Books, 319 pp., $25.00
The 'Abortion Pill'
by Etienne-Emile Baulieu, with Mort Rosenblum
Simon and Schuster, 238 pp., $22.00
The world population now increases by 1.7 percent (90 million) per year, while production of cereals is increasing by only 0.9 percent per year. During the past twenty years there have been about 200 million hunger-related deaths; the growing food deficit may raise that number five-fold in the next twenty years. The population of some of the poorest countries is growing fastest. Bangladesh, with a land area smaller than that of Wisconsin, now has a population of 114 million, which is expected to outstrip the present population of the United States, 240 million, in about thirty years' time. What will happen to these poor people? Even if by some miracle of science enough food could be produced to feed them, how could they find the gainful employment needed to buy it? These prospects are so grim to contemplate that both the Pope and the White House are reported to have forced the recent conference on the environment at Rio to ignore them.
Review, 4079 words
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