Maybe more important than those wars in the 1970’s was that people throughout the world got worried about running out of things. This was the time of the “great population scare,” which transformed thinking worldwide, no doubt contributing to higher commodity prices while the fear lasted.

There seemed to be some basis for this scare. The rate of increase in the world’s population rose from 1.8 per cent in 1951 to 2.1 per cent in 1971. But those were just dry statistics. Images likely mattered more.

In 1948, the astronomer Fred Hoyle said, “Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available - once the sheer isolation of the earth becomes plain - a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.” A generation later, he was proven right. The first photograph of the earth from space came as part of the Apollo project in November 1967. One of the Apollo astronauts, James B. Irwin, who landed on the moon in 1971, said of his view of the earth, “It was so far away... a little ball in the blackness of space. That does something to your soul...We all came back humanitarians....We saw how fragile our planet is and yet how beautiful. We saw how we must learn to work together, to love each other.”

Let’s not discount that statement. That image of the earth from space had a profound psychological effect, and we all saw it. Maybe that image was at least part of the reason why people became so worried in the 1970’s about population running ahead of resources.

... contd.