Myth of superabundance

The myth of superabundance is the belief that Earth has more than sufficient natural resources to satisfy humanity's wants, and that no matter how much of these resources humanity uses, the planet will continuously replenish the supply. The term was coined by US politician Stewart Udall — a member of the Democratic Party — in 1964 in his book The Quiet Crisis, though the idea had existed previously among 19th-century US conservationists.

Udall described the myth as the belief that there was "so much land, so much water, so much timber, so many birds and beasts"^: 22 that humans did not envision a time where the planet would not replenish what had been sowed. The myth of superabundance began to circulate during Thomas Jefferson's presidency at the beginning of the nineteenth century and persuaded many Americans to exploit natural resources as they pleased with no concern of possible long-term consequences. According to historian of the North American West George Colpitts, "no theme became as integral to western promotion as natural abundance."^: 104 Especially with respect to the American West after 1890, promotional literature encouraged migration by invoking the idea that God had provided an abundant environment where no person or family would fail if they sought to farm or otherwise live off the land.

At that time, environmental science and the study of ecology barely allowed for the possibility of animal extinction and did not provide tools for measuring biomass or the limits of natural resources; therefore many speculators, settlers, and other parties were unaware of the potential impact of unsustainable practices that led to various extinctions, the Dust Bowl phenomenon, and other environmental catastrophes.