Scientists tied postwar solar research to population and resource exhaustion fears

Evidence

By 1948, he was arguing that the development of solar technology was indispensable in a time of “profligate spending of the world’s natural resources and uncontrolled increase in population.” He often cited Osborn and Vogt to support his argument. “The days of easy geographical quest for more food, fuel, and power are over, and our frontiers now lie in science and engineering,” he wrote in Science. “In the future, it will be necessary to increase the efficiency of our utilization of sunlight, to conserve all our resources, and to control the birth rate of the world’s population.” — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 220

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: 1970s population-bomb forecasts predicted imminent American water and food rationing — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 299; Early solar advocates framed efficiency as saving resources, not reducing pollution — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 215

Broader Connections

• Early solar advocates framed efficiency as saving resources, not reducing pollution #expands (0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 215