Under the Spell of Malthus

Ronald Bailey's review of Jared Diamond's Collapse ("Under the Spell of Malthus," August/September) was excellent and raised important public policy issues. But Bailey's happy scenario for the 21st century is no more certain than Diamond's gloom and doom.

Many of the improvements Bailey discusses are one-time-only efficiency upgrades or are otherwise self-limiting. In science and technology, astounding progress marches alongside maddeningly simple but seemingly unsolvable problems, in the last 50 years, the density of data on computer disks has increased 500 million times while the energy density of batteries has increased only marginally. While we can grow more food than we do now, there is a limit somewhere out there.

Vic Arnold

Westerly, RI

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