Market Correction

14 April 2007

Editor, Baltimore Sun

To the Editor:

Carleton Brown asserts that natural disasters are nature's way of warning that human population is too large (Letters, April 14). Mr. Brown should study history.

For example, geologists have identified 27 monster floods during the past 1.8 million years. More than half (16) - including the worst eleven of these floods - are pre-historic. They occurred either before humans existed or when our population was no higher than 20 million (merely 0.3 percent of today's level). Further each of the remaining 11 floods occurred in areas that are non-industrialized and sparsely populated.*

Or take the Black Death. This massive plague struck during the 14th century when our population was no higher than 500 million - just eight percent of today's level. Considering that life-expectancy today is at an all-time high, it is very difficult to sustain the case that our large population is a curse.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University


* Jim E. O’Connor and John E. Costa, "The World's Largest Floods, Past and Present: Their Causes and Magnitudes" U.S. Geological Survey, Circular 1254, (2004):
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1254/