The "Limits to Growth" worldview, centered on the idea that natural resources were about to be depleted by human "overpopulation", gained ascendancy in the 1970's. This philosophy has driven international policies and cultural trends to the point where much of the developed world, especially Europe, is threatened with declining population in the coming century. Coercive population control programs threaten to drag the rest of the world down the same path.

But would a human population growing at a moderate, healthy rate really have no outcome other than to deplete the resources available to that very population? Not so, according to an article by Dennis Wingo, who points out the abundance of resources the Solar System is blessed with, and our potential to access them.