Today is the 40th anniversary of The Population Bomb by Dr. Paul Ehrlich. I didn't read it when it came out (I think I was a sophomore in high school) but I know that many of my teachers spouted its warnings. I remember that we were told the population of the earth would reach 20 billion by the end of the century (AD 2000). Of course population today is not even close to the half way mark of that prediction and we are eight years over the target date. Dr. Ehrlich predicted famines in the 70s and 80s, the death of hundreds of millions, a different world (economically, politically) when the children of the 60s became adults, and ridiculously high prices for various natural resources because over population would produce extreme scarcity. But his predictions have all proven to be non-existent.
In order to stop such over population Ehrlich suggested that population control was the only way. At first voluntary methods would be used but if those proved ineffective then forced control would be necessary. Of course who would be in charge of this forced control? Why our benevolent government leaders. You can read an interesting review of his book here. You can also read a brief interview of Ehrlich here on the publication of a new book conducted by the publisher of his book. Ehrlich's new book promises new studies and to show that the planet has actually gotten worse than the predictions of his 40 year old book.
You can read about a wager here that Ehrlich made with a libertarian (Julian Simon) on the prices of our resources. You can also read an interview that Wired Magazine (Feb. 1997) did with said libertarian here. Simon claims that the statistics that environmentalists and other doom-sayers quote us are entirely wrong. For instance, in the late 90s environmentalists were telling us that we were destroying species at the rate of almost 40,000 per year, yet Simon claims that the highest observable rate of extinction is one per year. Anyway, the interview is quite interesting and worth your read if you want to hear all the sides.
What is Dr. Ehrlich up to these days? You can read about his current activities and publications here. I love anniversaries, don't you?
8 comments:
I like this quote from the Wired article:
"[Simon] always found it somewhat peculiar that neither the Science piece nor his public wager with Ehrlich nor anything else that he did, said, or wrote seemed to make much of a dent on the world at large. For some reason he could never comprehend, people were inclined to believe the very worst about anything and everything; they were immune to contrary evidence just as if they'd been medically vaccinated against the force of fact... Repeatedly being wrong actually seemed to be an advantage, conferring some sort of puzzling magic glow upon the speaker."
I'm hoping that works for me as well! ;-)
Brother Bob,
Hey, this is way off topic, but you should know that Wawa is now putting out light cream for their coffee drinkers along with all the other creamer options they serve.
Yaaaaaayyyy!!!! I find I now enjoy some half and half mixed with some light cream; which I guess makes it one quarter and three quarter. Oh well. Just thought you might like to know.
Take care and have a happy anniv. on wed.
Tom
Tim,
That was a favorite as well. Ehrlich has gotten grants and continues to write books that receive great accolades.
Tom,
They only sell light cream in those tiny cartons here in Florida and not in the quart size like the half and half. So I've been using half and half only. Oh well, WaWa will just have to be on my must visit list.
I hear that ya got an anniversary Wed, and that it's your wife's too!
a Tom~boy told me :)
happy Anniversary!
When I was in college in 1976 we were strongly encouraged by our science instructors to attend a speech on campus that was to be given by Ehrlich. The topic:
Man-made global COOLING and why we were all gonna die from it! ;-)
Kathy, thanks for adding a personal experience. Did Ehrlich say how we were causing the earth to cool? My guess is the same things that today many are saying are causing global warming.
You're welcome!
Actually, Ehrlich must not have made a very big impression on me since I don't remember many specifics, although I do remember a vague sense of being entertained. I think air pollution was his explanation for global cooling. And nuclear war was going to block the sun even more. But maybe someone else said that :-)
I recently ran across Paul Ehrlich in the news and though about you ;-)
He has authored a new book with Anne Ehrlich called The Dominant Animal. "In many ways, the situation is far worse today than I could have imagined when I wrote The Population Bomb," says Ehrlich. "We, as the dominant animal, have so altered the environment and so damaged our life-support systems that the stresses on the living world are similar to those produced by a meteor strike."
We're all STILL gonna die!!!!!
The article can be found at www.marketwatch.com (9-15-08)
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