JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: In defense of ‘cornucopianism’ and a more populous planet. “It’s no easy task to select just one wrong-headed assertion among so many in the Scientific American essay ‘Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement’ by Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at Harvard University. But here goes.”

Plus: “On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?”