Review : Agent provocateur

Julian Simon sends environmentalists apoplectic. Disappearing rainforests,
ozone holes, global warming? So what?, he says. It doesn’t matter. Human
ingenuity will get us by, and make us ever richer. Overpopulation? More hands to
work will counteract more mouths to feed. “Balanced,” says the blurb to The
State of Humanity (Blackwell, £16.99/$24.95, ISBN 1 55786 585 X).
Oh no it’s not. The frisson comes from wondering if he is right.