while a professor at yale, henry wallich began to confront the doomsayers. some years ago i guess 10 years ago there were projections up to 30 billion people. i think they've gradually come down because population growth has diminished and yielded to the effect of higher standards of living. with higher standards of living and government persuasion, population growth can level off. disaster need not strike. on pollution political considerations are as important as economic ones. anitpollution technologies are available, and the costs of cutting back emissions and cleaning up can be passed to consumers. another major subject in the limits-to-growth thesis involves basic resources minerals and oil. shortages were imminent, said the growth-busters. in the early seventies, they got a boost for their cause. one of the striking things for the club of rome was after the book came out, oil prices jumped up four times. people said, "uh-huh they're right." then five or six years later it jumped again, so that seemed to be pretty good evidence. now the price of oil is