However, I think the major opposition to ecology has deeper roots than mere economics; ecology threatens widely held values so fundamental that they must be called religious.
An attack on values is inevitably seen as an act of subversion.
Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.
The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
