178 Superlongevity Without Overpopulation Belgium,  or  Japan.  Lomborg  also  notes  that  Ohio  and Denmark are more densely populated than Indonesia. [3] We  should  also  recognize  that  most  population  growth takes place in urban areas, which provide a better standard of living. As a result, most of this planet’s landmass will not be more densely populated than it is today. Over the next three decades, we can expect to see almost no change in the rural population of the world and, by 2025, 97% of Europe will be less densely populated than today. [8] We should celebrate the urbanization trend since even the urban poor thrive better than they would in the country. The causes of this include better  water  supplies,  sewage  systems,  health  services,  edu- cation, and nutrition. [9] Oddly enough, serious infectious diseases like malaria are less threatening the closer buildings are together (and so the smaller the space for swampy areas beloved of mosquitoes and flies). [10] SUSTAINABILITY AND THE GREAT RESTORATION The  future  could  be  far  brighter  than  the  eco-doomsters have long portrayed it. As Ronald Bailey [11] reports: Jesse Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University, believes the 21st century will see the beginning of a ‘Great Restoration’ as  humanity’s  productive  activities  increasingly  with- draw from the natural world. If world farmers come to match the typical yield of today’s US corn growers, ten billion people could eat amply while requiring only half of today’s cropland. This is one way in which  technological  advance  in  farming  will  allow  vast expanses of land to revert to nature. Transgenic crops could