Backlash: A Biologist Looks at Problems of Population and the Environment. By Sir Alan Parkes. Pp 240. (Portland Press for the Parkes Foundation, March 1993.) £16.00
Backlash was Sir Alan Parkes’ last book, prepared after his death from a manuscript on which he had worked spasmodically for many years. It is a comprehensive survey of population issues covering both the causes and effects of increasing human numbers. Its inevitable conclusion is that the human species is destroying the Earth’s capacity to support it and that currently projected rates of growth cannot be sustained - if we do not curb our own fertility, nature will do it for us in a variety of unpleasant ways.
The reaction of nature against the impact of human “progress” - backlash - is the title and recurring theme of the book. It is a theme that will be very familiar to members of the Institute, who are unlikely to find any new material. Instead they will find a clear and coherent presentation of the issues, well supported with tables and graphs. There are some obvious errors in the data presented and there may be others that are not so evident; fortunately this does not detract from the clarity of Sir Alan’s message.
The book is very easy and enjoyable to read and the issues it raises are crucially important to all of us. This would make an ideal textbook for a course that ought to be compulsory in every school in the country - indeed, the world.
Robert Peel