Barbat (1973) proposed that a worldwide increase in the use of manufactured energy (electricity) for labor-saving purposes is a prospective means for stopping the world’s explosive population growth. A correlation between these two variables (birthrate and per capita consumption of electricity) can be demonstrated. However, the implication of a cause-and-effect relation, which pervaded Barbat’s paper, is improper, and the statistical extrapolation of the relation into areas where historical data are lacking is misleading.
The relation between birthrate and per capita consumption of electricity presented by Barbat is reproduced in Figure 1. The wide arrow formed by the hatching is...
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