Environmental Alarmists and Apocalyptic Doomers Hate This - Because It’s True

The conversation with Dr. Gale Pooley centers on their groundbreaking book Superabundance, which refutes decades of apocalyptic Malthusian thinking by demonstrating—through hard data—that as population increases, so does abundance. Using the innovative metric of “time prices,” which calculates how much time a person must work to afford basic goods, Dr. Pooley shows that global prosperity has skyrocketed over the past two centuries. This conversation dismantles myths of inevitable resource scarcity by highlighting how human ingenuity, freedom, and market-driven innovation have made the world richer, healthier, and more capable of solving its own problems.

We also explore the psychological and cultural roots of anti-human, scarcity-driven ideologies. Figures like Paul Ehrlich and movements such as radical environmentalism promote a view that more people means more problems, but the data reveals the opposite: population growth, when coupled with freedom, is the greatest engine of human progress. The conversation linked the fear of the future to a broader cultural pessimism—fueled by ignorance of history and technophobic fatalism—and calls instead for a renaissance of gratitude and creativity. Far from being a cancer on the Earth, the individual—when free to think, speak, and trade—is a net good.

Superabundance Book - https://amzn.to/4nqGQlF

 Raw Transcript