State of the World, an annually updated book edited by Worldwatch Institute president Lester Brown, routinely predicts the imminent collapse of civilization through overpopulation, famine, resource depletion, and related environmental catastrophes. The 1993 edition proudly announced its tenth year of publication.

[Ed.: Mr. Brown predicted imminent famine in 1967, 1974, 1984, and 1989. In 1984 he announced, "If we go back to 1950 and look at the economic, agricultural, and social trends, we can see a clean breaking point somewhere around 1973." In the late 1970s he also predicted that oil supplies would soon diminish sharply "with production peaking around 1990." And even "more crucial than oil" is the world's topsoil, which Brown believes is being "lost" to erosion to the tune of 415 million acres of cropland in America alone—half of its cultivated land.]

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