The Population Bomb | Paul Ehrlich

Over 50 years ago, he predicted dire consequences in "The Population Bomb", and since then our population has doubled. Dr. Paul Ehrlich joins us to discuss overpopulation, resource depletion & global climate change - and what we can do to stop it.

Dr. Paul Ehrlich is the Bing Professor of Population Studies, Emeritus, and President of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford. He is author and coauthor of more than 1,100 scientific papers and articles and over 40 books, including the 1968 best-seller, “The Population Bomb”, co-authored with his wife Anne.

Dr. Ehrlich is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Among his many other honors is the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and being awarded the Crafoord prize.He has appeared on more than 1,000 TV and radio programs and was a correspondent for NBC News.

Back when Paul and Anne wrote "The Population Bomb", the global population was at 3.5 billion. Today, we’re at 8 billion people, and United Nations projects a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s.

Critics called the book alarmist and noted that the mass starvation he predicted never came to pass – but others have said that his book helped to prevent this tragedy by raising awareness and inspiring positive action.

Advances in agriculture and technology helped us avoid mass starvation, but our increasing population is causing adverse effects. Will demographic transition help keep population in check as lifestyles change from agricultural to industrialized society, and what lessons can we learn from China's "one-child" policy?

Dr. Paul Erlich, Stanford:

"The Population Bomb" on Amazon:

Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?

Failure of the universities: The culture gap is now near lethal:

[acetate]

How is he still relevant? He pushed the American government to enact eugenics programs and wrote a best selling book that made erroneous predictions that led to forced sterilization programs in third world countries. This man is a monster.

[brendan]

I love the fact that this guy has no shame about being completely and disastrously wrong with every single prediction he's ever made. He's a hero of sorts, he lacks the shame genome

[andrepow]

He has been wrong on so many things, btw London still exists.

[tewruzc]

Ask this guy how many things he predicted that never happened. Why would you give him any credibility?

[John-Nada]

The premise of an eternal cosmic homeostasis where humans hold any power to influence outcomes might be flawed

[rons.]

Were there a prize for the most wrong man in the world…. He’d win by a very big margin

[davidpaz]

Basic ethics, Ehrlich intones. I've never believed he, or anyone of his train of thought, is genuinely altruistic. I fear with them it's not how many excessive people there are but who they would deem 'non-essential.'

[davidgladstone]

Malthus ideas were trashed long ago and yet these demagogues seem unaware of his demise! None of his predictions will come true.

[alexcarter]

Americans at least just can't wrap their heads around the idea of living with less. The idea of doing without a car, doing without a ton of *stuff* horrifies them. I think a large part of this is the dog-eat-dog nature of American culture. It's really easy to lose everything and become a pariah in the US.

[chrisfehr]

This guy just criticized Stanford after saying that they know less than a Finnish middleschool, he must be brilliant, oh wait…his ideas have been completely debunked because of the market. What, you need food? Let’s grow some and I’ll sell it to you

[markbrayX]

this guy is hilarious. A 50 year career, based on being wrong each and every day. Overpopulation?

[ctwatcher]

He's lived long enough, why doesn't he take himself off earth to help? I bet he uses more resources than we do so yeah, he's gotta go. Run a football field after his next booster. He is getting them isn't he?!

[LouisPaquette]

Were his predictions merely too early?

[voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang]

I recommend Paul Ehrlich's recent youtube discussions with conservation biology professor Guy McPherson regarding "biological annihilation" as Ehrlich has published on, regarding abrupt global warming and the ecological crisis. thanks

[Spartan]

Typical academic. He will keep doubling down and never admit that he was wrong.

[hackbritton]

Interesting you have been wrong at your every step. Just a bricklayer looking back at your comments. I do mean mere comments. God bless you.

[alexcarter]

I absolutely adore Dr. Ehrlich and thought I'd seen all of his lectures. Thanks for putting this up! I consider him one of the "greats" along with Carl Sagan, Rachel Carson, etc. It's funny, I could pop over to Stanford and see him as I'm not all that far away, but I don't have anything very useful to say so I admire him from afar.

[reneehays]

The entire population of the world could fit inside Texas.

[laurencehugo]

Republicans' war on women? Sorry, overdramatising, lost me right there.

[joshuajam]

Tim Ventura is a joke too for taking this interview as serious as he has taken it.