"Master, I have been thinking of this 'One-Pro-Mille concept for the planetary population. How is it calculated?"
"There is no question of calculation only of guessing. We could easely re-design this number when well on the way to attain it. But, first, imagine very primitive man, no fire, only spears and clubs, no agriculture. At one tenth of the number of today, 500 million, he would still be overabundant. All the forests on Earth unscathed, yet, these 500 million could not survive. There would not remain a single fish in the waters, a bird in the skies, a mammal in the bush. But above all, there would be wars and wars, fierce extermination. Now, try out a hundredth part of today, 50 million, but living as the Greeks in Homer's time. Metals, fire, axes and spades, devastating wars, fleets of triremenes, in short, it would not take them long to graze Earth's forests clean off the planet. One tenth, and one hundredth of today both inviting disaster, there is nothing for it but to estimate for such a perfect waster as 1990's people, to be able to avert catastrophe only when he is a thousandth of today's 5 milliard. Now, take Lebanon, N.Ireland etc. etc. and what do you see at One-Pro-Mille? Not a shot will be fired, the population too busy living a rich and happy life. But note, that in these numbers of today, 5 milliard, 5,000,000,000. a large part lives roughly as the Greeks, a large part even as primitive man, and a large part as professional wasters (six or seven cars per lifetime, ten radios, four washing machines, six television sets, five videos, watches, pocketcalculators, yearly vacations of 1000 kilometers, electric toolsets, etc. per person per lifetime). And the whole population wants to belong to this latter group too."