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Home , James Lovelock, The Population Bomb, The Ultimate Resource

The Electronic Journal of (2009) 1(3)

The Bomb Revisited

Paul R. Ehrlich* and Anne H. Ehrlich†

* Paul R. Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biology at Stanford University. †Anne H. Ehrlich is associate director and policy coordinator of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. They co-authoredThe Population Bomb in 1968. Email: Pre =a= stanford.edu (replace =a= with @)

Abstract came in early 1968 from David Brower of the and Ian Ballantine of Ballantine Books. They hoped to has been both praised and vilified, get the population book out in time to influence the but there has been no controversy over its significance presidential election (how naïve we were!), and we wrote in calling attention to the demographic element in the the book in a few weeks of evenings. Although the pub- human predicament. Here we describe the book’s origins lisher insisted on a single author, it was from the beginning a joint and impacts, analyze its conclusions, and suggest that its effort. And the publisher exercised his right to select the title; our basic message is even more important today than it was preference was Population, Resources, and Environment. forty years ago.

Reaction to the Population Bomb

The book has been seen, at the very least to some on the lunatic It has now been forty years since we wrote The Population fringe, as of some enduring importance. It was listed by the Bomb (Ehrlich 1968). The book sold some 2 million copies, Intercollegiate Review as one of the fifty worst books of the was translated into many languages, and changed our . There 20th century, along with John Kenneth Gailbraith’s The is not much disagreement about the significance of the volume Affluent Society, John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory – whether a person agrees with it or not, The Population Bomb of Employment, Interest, and Money, and John Rawls’ A helped launch a worldwide debate that continues today. It intro- Theory of Justice.1 In Human Events’ list of the “Ten Most duced millions of people to the fundamental issue of the ’s Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Cen- finite capacity to sustain human . We believe that turies,” it came in 11th place (“honorable mention”); even despite its flaws, the book still provides a useful lens for viewing so, it bested Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and the environmental, energy, and crisis of the present time. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, though it was outranked On a more personal level, it got Paul labeled the “population by Keynes (again), Marx’s Das Kapital, and The Kinsey bomber” and categorized as someone who thought overpopula- Report, among others.2 tion was the sole problem of humanity. To this day when he lec- Much of the negative response to The Population tures or appears on the media, he is pursued by inaccurate or out Bomb, from both the far right and the far left, was clearly of context “quotes” from The Bomb. Such quotes are frequently a reaction to its main message – that it can be a very bad assumed to represent our current thinking on many topics – thing to have more than a certain number of people alive including ones on which we have subsequently written entire at the same time, that Earth has a finite carrying capac- books. ity, and that the future of civilization was in grave doubt. The Population Bomb was written in response to a Originally Marxists thought that “The productive request that Paul summarize arguments he had been power at mankind’s disposal is immeasurable” (Engels making in the media that the population issue should be 1844), and thus they simply couldn’t envision overpopu- taken up by the growing . That lation. The far left in modern times found the advocacy movement had been triggered in no small part by Rachel of limiting immoral. They saw the Carson’s Silent Spring (Carson 1962). The suggestion basic issue not as overpopulation but as maldistribution

© Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development The Population Bomb Revisited of resources and worried that the far right would use next 7 billion years” (Myers and Simon 1994, p. 65)5. In overpopulation as an excuse to promote births of only 1994, when that was written, the was the “right kind” (skin color, religion, national origin) of growing at 1.4 percent annually. At that rate it would people – as was demonstrated by the movement only take some 6000 years for the mass of the human and racist elements in the population control movement. population to equal the mass of the universe. The latter problem has caused Paul to put great effort A similar lack of understanding of the power of expo- into refuting the idea, once expressed by William Shock- nential growth in population and consumption was dem- ley,3 that people are color-coded for quality (Ehrlich and onstrated by Wilfred Beckerman, Professor of Political Holm 1964, Ehrlich and Feldman 1977, Ehrlich 2000). Economy at University College London before moving Conservatives, wed to the idea that free markets could to Oxford. According to Beckerman, the problems asso- solve any problem, didn’t like the idea that population ciated with exponential growth in the use of any finite size was a legitimate area for government intervention. resource were “just as true in Ancient Greece…. This did Those opposed to contraception, , and sex not prevent from taking place since education in the United States of course hated it, while the age of Pericles…. [T]here is no reason to suppose the sexually repressed simply didn’t like any discussion of that economic growth cannot continue for another 2500 reproductive issues in their sex-soaked society. None of years.” (Beckerman 1972).6 Assuming “slow” economic those constituencies seemed to understand that the fun- growth at a little over one percent per year, if damental issue was whether an overpopulated society, had existed in Pericles’ time (ca. 450 BC), the average capitalist or socialist, sexually repressed or soaked, egali- family income would have had the annual buying power tarian or racist/sexist, religious or atheist, could avoid of about a millionth of a penny (Parsons 1977)! That is, if collapse. Four decades of largely ignored population one started with a millionth of a penny in ancient Greece, growth and related issues -- especially patterns of rising and invested it at an interest rate of one percent annu- consumption and their environmental effects -- since ally, it would have generated about the same amount of then make collapse now seem ever more likely and pos- money as a British family’s income in 1977. sibly sooner than even many pessimists think. Equally silly statements are made about the relation- In late June 2008 James Hansen, a top NASA scien- ship of human numbers to prosperity. As late as 2007, tist, told Congress the climate situation has gotten so echoing Chairman Mao7 and ,8 demogra- bad that the civilization’s only hope is drastic action. pher Nicholas Eberstadt called people the “wealth of He asserted that the world has long passed the “danger- modern societies” (Eberstadt 2007). People, of course, ous level” for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and can be regarded as productive assets (embodying, as must get back to 1988 levels. In his view, the volume of economists would put it, “human capital”), but it is an man-made already injected into Earth’s error to consider increases in human numbers as auto- atmosphere can remain for no more than a couple more matically expanding real wealth – the capacity for well- decades without causing changes such as mass extinc- being. Given the growing of natural resources, tions, ecosystem collapses, and dramatic sea level rises. population growth normally reduces per capita genuine In summary, he said, “We’re toast if we don’t get on a wealth, and can even shrink a nation’s total wealth (e.g., very different path.”4 And, of course, any path that satis- Arrow et al. 2004). If wealth were a function of popula- factorily deals with climate disruption would necessarily tion size, China and India each would be three to four involve control of human numbers. times as rich as the United States and more affluent Perhaps the biggest barrier to acceptance of the central than all the nations of Europe combined, Africa’s wealth arguments of The Bomb was–and still is–an unwilling- would outstrip that of North America or Europe, and ness of the vast majority of people to do simple math and Yemen would be three times as well off as Israel (Popula- take seriously the problems of exponential growth. This tion Reference Bureau 2008). is not just the man in the street – it includes individuals who otherwise might be considered highly educated. A classic example was the statement by a professor of busi- Population since The Bomb ness administration, specializing in mail-order market- ing, Julian Simon, who found prominence as a critic of World-renowned scientist , whose : “We now have in our hands – in invention of the apparatus that allowed discovery of the our libraries, really – the to feed, clothe, and threat to the and saved humanity, recently supply energy to an ever-growing population for the stated: “We have grown in number to the point where

64 the electronic journal of sustainable development www.ejsd.org our presence is perceptibly disabling the like a doubling the population in 35 years, as continued growth disease.”9 When The Population Bomb was written, there at the 1968 rate would have done, we may not reach that were roughly 3.5 billion people in the world. Four decades level – 7 billion – until 2013, 45 years afterThe Bomb was later there are 6.7 billion people (Population Reference published. Bureau 2008), meaning that the world population has Fortunately, the implications of population growth nearly doubled since The Bomb rolled off the presses. for our future overall well-being are gradually working Despite this growth, there have been some remark- their way back into the public and political conscious- able advances on the population front. Birthrates have ness today (e.g., Feeney 2008), especially in terms of the dropped in most of the world, partly in response to gov- harm growth does in retarding the development of poor ernment-sponsored programs in education (especially of nations (Campbell et al. 2007). That’s very fortunate women), giving women job opportunities, making con- because the depressing fact is that, even with the good traceptive information and materials accessible – and to news on the population front, humanity may add some economic factors. 2.5 billion people to the population before growth stops Some of the lowest birthrates are now found in the and (we hope) a slow decline begins. rich, fully industrialized nations of Europe and in Japan. It is essential to try to minimize those additions That’s fortunate in one respect because it is the high- because they will have a disproportionate negative consuming rich nations that place the greatest pressure impact on our -support systems. Our ancestors natu- on humanity’s staggering life-support systems (Ehrlich rally farmed the richest soils and used the most acces- and Holdren 1971, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2005). The big sible resources first (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2005, p. 102). exception is the United States, which is a center of over- Now those soils, where people first settled as they took consumption and whose population continues growing up farming, have often been eroded away or paved over, because of a relatively high birthrate (average family and societies are increasingly forced to turn to marginal size about 2.1 children, compared with 1.4 in Italy and land to grow more food. Instead of extracting rich ores Spain and 1.3 in Germany and Japan) and high immigra- on or near the surface, deeper and much poorer deposits tion rate (4 per thousand, with Italy the same, Spain 7, must be mined and smelted today, at ever-greater envi- Germany 0, and Japan 0). The nation has recently been ronmental cost. Water and petroleum must come from in the strange position of debating immigration policy lower quality sources, deeper wells, or the latter often without ever discussing population policy. from far beneath the ocean, and must be transported Sadly, the United States has also been plagued by over longer distances. The environmental and resource administrations, first under Ronald Reagan and then impacts of past and future population growth will haunt under George W. Bush, that have in effect encouraged humanity for a long time. high birthrates by withholding aid to programs that allow women access to safe abortion. Even so, the majority of developing countries have adopted Where The Bomb was on the right track family planning programs, and many have substantially reduced their birthrates as the perception of children as Aside from its general emphasis on the perils of popula- valued farm labor has changed with to one tion growth, the book also drew early attention to over- in which children do not join the labor force early and are consumption as a problem (p. 133) 10, something that expensive to educate. Meanwhile some high-consuming is increasingly seen as a pattern that may be more dif- European have even started shrinking in size ficult to alter than over-reproduction (see, e.g., Ehrlich – ironically accompanied by complaints about “aging and Goulder 2007, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2008). The U.S. populations.” That the change in age distribution is inevi- share of global consumption has dropped substantially table as population growth stops, and is often beneficial since The Bomb was published; as the book predicted, its and easily managed, is ignored (Ehrlich and Ehrlich share of world population has also dropped from a little 2006). More importantly, so is the vast benefit of lessen- under 7 percent to less than 5 percent. Yet the United ing pressure on our already battered life-support systems. States still consumes nearly a quarter of Earth’s resource Thus the central goal of The Population Bomb, to flows. While the factors influencing reproductive pat- encourage the adoption of policies that would gradually terns are now relatively well recognized, and thus the reduce birthrates and eventually start a global decline ways in which family-size choices can be altered, equiva- toward a human population size that is sustainable in lent understanding of consumption choices has not been the long run, has been partially achieved. Rather than established.

65 The Population Bomb Revisited

What about the often-cited warnings about world and Ehrlich 1996b). And it gave ample attention to the population outstripping food supplies? Our skepticism overuse of pesticides, especially DDT, which remains a on the oceans as a source of increased food has been serious problem, despite knowledge that often, maybe more than borne out. We wrote, referring to a claim in always, integrated pest control is a more economically an editorial in the January 28, 1967 issue of Saturday (Cowan and Gunby 1996) and ecologically rational Evening Post (p. 86): “What about those ‘unmeasurable approach (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1990, pp. 57–59). riches’ of the sea? Unhappily, they have been measured and found wanting. The notion that we can extract vastly greater amounts of food from the sea in the near future What did The Bomb get wrong? is quite simply just another myth promoted by the igno- rant or the irresponsible” (p. 99). The wild seafood catch From a personal point of view, the worst aspect of the has not kept pace with population’s rise. Despite escalat- book was its title, which was taken (with permission) ing (and environmentally dangerous) efforts at herding from General William H. Draper, founder of the Popu- fishes in the oceans (“fish farming”), the total yield from lation Crisis Committee and a pamphlet issued in 1954 the seas (wild plus farmed) has only increased about 20 by the Hugh Moore Fund. Draper was, in tune with the percent per person, mostly in less desirable fish species tenor of and his friendship with George H.W. – with no sign of “unmeasurable riches.” The long-term Bush, most concerned with the control of the popula- costs of attempting to continue increasing the wild fish tions of dark-skinned people (for an overview of the less harvest are projected (e.g., Pauly et al. 1998, Jackson savory aspects of population limitation, see Connelly 2008) to be disastrous, and even the popular press is 2008). The publisher’s choice of The Population Bomb beginning to realize that the future of the oceans is truly was perfect from a marketing perspective but it led at risk (Renton 2008). Only a combination of reduced Paul to be miscategorized as solely focused on human fishing pressures, a ban on bottom trawling, restoration numbers, despite our interest in all the factors affecting of fisheries’ coastal “nursery” ecosystems, establishment the human trajectory. of large networks of marine reserves, and (probably) Perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that stabilization of the climate through great reductions of it was much too optimistic about the future. When it the flow of CO2 into the atmosphere (and thus reducing was written, carbon dioxide was thought to be the only the acidification of the seas) would likely brighten that gas whose might cause serious global future. heating (the roles of methane, nitrous oxide, and chlo- Similarly, our view of the panacea potential of novel rofluorocarbons were not recognized until a decade or food sources such as single-cell protein from bacteria or so later). When the book was published, some clima- cultured on petroleum or sewage (e.g., Marx 1989), tologists thought that any warming from carbon dioxide leaf protein (Pirie 1966), or food production by nuclear emissions would be counteracted by anthropogenic dust agro-industrial complexes (Oak Ridge National Labo- and contrails from high-flying jets, which would have ratory 1968) has proven entirely correct (pp. 100–105), a global cooling effect. As a result, we could only write as has our estimate that high-yield grains held the most that exploding human populations were tampering with hope for increasing human food supplies (pp. 106–107) the energy balance of Earth and that the results globally and our concern about the environmental downsides and locally could be dire. Since The Bomb was written, of what was termed the “” (Dahlberg increases in flows into the atmosphere, a 1979, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1990, Ehrlich and Ehrlich consequence of the near doubling of the human popula- 1991). tion and the near tripling of global consumption, indi- The book was ahead of its time in its attention to new cate that the results likely will be catastrophic climate threats of vast epidemics connected to population size, disruption caused by greenhouse heating. coming out as it did just as Surgeon General William In 1968 Sherwood Rowland and had H. Stewart was declaring that vaccination and antibiot- not yet discovered the potential of chlorofluorocar- ics had conquered infectious diseases. Decades before bons to destroy the ozone layer and make life on Earth’s AIDS began to kill millions of people, we wrote of our surface impossible. Norman Myers was years from calling concern about the deterioration of the epidemiologi- world attention to the destruction of tropical rainfor- cal environment and the possibility of a “super flu”(pp. ests; when The Bomb was written, the possibility that 69–71), which are far more serious worries today than the tropical moist forests of the Amazon basin, Africa, they were forty years ago (Daily and Ehrlich 1996a, Daily and Asia might be destroyed was essentially unknown.

66 the electronic journal of sustainable development www.ejsd.org

Also unknown were the threats of endocrine disrupting The analysis of the food situation in The Population contaminants (pollutants that mimic hormones), com- Bomb was thus wrong in that it underestimated the pounds with non-linear dose-response curves that may impact of the green revolution. At the same time it did be more dangerous in trace rather than high concentra- recognize that serious ecological risks would accom- tions (Myers and Hessler 2007, Narita et al. 2007). Polar pany the spread of that revolution (p. 108), although bears were not having reproductive difficulties blamed missing the overdrafts of groundwater, declines in the on pollutants then, nor were they losing their habitat due genetic vari­ability of crops, and some other problems. It to melting sea ice. And we did not anticipate the largely empha­sized the importance of both curbing population successful attempts of the Reagan and George W. Bush growth and attempting to expand food production, and administrations to roll back environmental regulations, it is worth noting that falling population growth rates in promote over-reproduction globally, and (in the case of the rich nations of Europe have played a significant role Bush) start a resource war over fossil fuels (Klare 2004, in the creation of agricultural surpluses in those coun- Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2005). The first post-World War II tries. Nevertheless, the absolute numbers of “hungry” resource war was over water – the 1967 Israeli-Arab war. people by 2005 (around 850 million) were somewhat Those two wars may have been precursors of many more less than they were in 1968. That was a cheering result, resource wars with intimate connections to overpopula- but the numbers of under- and malnourished people tion (Klare 2001, Klare 2008). may now have risen again by 100 million or more in the There were of course flaws in The Population Bomb’s current food shortage crisis. Even so, the reduction of the analysis of known threats. The first lines of the Prologue hungry portion of the world population may well have (p. 11) proved to be among the most troublesome in the been bought at a high of environmental destruc- book: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the tion to be paid by future generations. It should be noted 1970s the world will undergo – hundreds of mil- that in 1968, as today, there was and is enough food to lions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any feed everyone an adequate diet if food were distributed crash programs embarked upon now.” We are often asked according to need. But there is not the slightest sign that what happened to the famines The Bomb predicted, as if humanity is about to distribute anything according to the last four decades were a period of abundant food for need, and it is uncertain how long there will be enough all. But, of course, there were famines, essentially con- food for everyone even if there were more equitable tinuously in parts of Africa. Perhaps 300 million people distribution. overall have died of hunger and hunger-related diseases The Bomb was also somewhat misleading in stating since 1968. But the famines were smaller than our reading that the birthrate in the United States might soon rise as of the agricultural literature (Paddock and Paddock the post-World War II baby boomers matured into their 1964) at the time had led us to anticipate. What hap- reproductive years. Instead, it actually dropped signifi- pened? The central factor, of course, was the medium- cantly in the early 1970s. One interesting question raised term success of the “green revolution” in expanding food by this is how much of that change was the result of rising production at a rate beyond what many, if not most, agri- concern about overpopulation generated in part by The cultural experts believed likely. As a result, there wasn’t Bomb itself. And in 1968 the critical importance for low- a general rise in the death rate from hunger – although ering birthrates of providing women with education and there have been periodic regional rises in South Asia job opportunities, as well as access to contraception and and Africa, and the world now may be on the brink of abortion, was under recognized, and we did not properly another major rise. emphasize their potential role in reducing birthrates. As was suggested in the same paragraph of the Pro- The biggest tactical error in The Bomb was the use of logue, many lives were saved by “dramatic programs to scenarios, stories designed to help one think about the ‘stretch’ the of the earth by increasing future. Although we clearly stated that they were not food production.” The success of expansion of India’s predictions and that “we can be sure that none of them grain production was far beyond that foreseen by experts will come true as stated,’ (p. 72) – their failure to occur such as Raymond Ewell (pp. 39–40) and Louis L. Bean is often cited as a failure of prediction. In honesty, the (pp. 40–41). On the other hand, the cautious optimism scenarios were way off, especially in their timing (we of Lester Brown (then administrator of the International underestimated the resilience of the world system). Agricultural Development Service) was justified for the But they did deal with future issues that people in 1968 short term, although Brown has subsequently become should have been thinking about – famines, plagues, much more pessimistic. water shortages, armed international interventions by

67 The Population Bomb Revisited the United States, and nuclear winter (e.g., Ehrlich et al. facing collapse is for the first time truly global (Ehrlich 1983, Toon et al. 2007) – all events that have occurred or and Ehrlich 2005, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2008). now still threaten. We also didn’t realize that many com- The fundamental point of The Population Bomb is mentators would assume that our analysis in The Popula- still self-evidently correct, we believe: the capacity of tion Bomb comprised our last thoughts on the subject Earth to produce food and support people is finite. and would never bother to look at the many hundreds of More and more scholars have realized that as our popu- subsequent articles and books in which we updated and lation, consumption, and technological skills expand, revised our conclusions (e.g., Ehrlich and Holdren 1971, the probability of a vast catastrophe looms steadily Ehrlich et al. 1977, Ehrlich et al. 1981, Ehrlich and Ehrlich larger (Homer-Dixon 2006). James Lovelock “believes 1981, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1987, Ehrlich and Ehrlich global warming is now irreversible, and that nothing can 1989, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1990, Ehrlich and Ehrlich prevent large parts of the planet becoming too hot to 1991, Ehrlich et al. 1992, Ehrlich et al. 1995, Ehrlich and inhabit, or sinking underwater, resulting in mass migra- Ehrlich 2005). tion, and epidemics. Britain is going to become a lifeboat for refugees from mainland Europe, so instead of wasting our time on wind turbines we need to start Back to fundamentals planning how to survive.” Lovelock fears we won’t invent the necessary to save us in time and expects The essential point made about population growth is as “about 80%” of the world’s population to be wiped out valid today as it was in 1968: “Basically, there are only by 2100.” Prophets have been foretelling Armageddon two kinds of solu­tions to the population problem. One since time began, he says. “But this is the real thing” is a ‘birthrate ,’ in which we find ways to lower (Aitkenhead 2008). British astronomer Sir Martin Rees the birthrate. The other is a ‘death rate solution,’ in which suggests similar possibilities as the title of a recent book ways to raise the death rate – war, famine, pestilence – indicates: Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning: How find us” (p. 34). Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten The answer to the question of whether future substan- Humankind’s Future In This Century – On Earth and tial rises in death rates could have been avoided if more Beyond (Rees 2003). comprehensive action to reduce birthrates had been initi- Signs of potential collapse, environmental and politi- ated in the late 1960s, will probably never be clear. Those cal, seem to be growing. The pattern is classic – popu- death rate rises seem ever more likely today as hunger lation grows to the limits of current technologies to wracks millions of poor people and causes food riots support it, followed by technological (e.g., (Anonymous 2008) and as the agricultural enterprise in long canals in Mesopotamia, green revolution in India, many regions is threatened by massive climate disruption biofuels in Brazil and U.S.) accompanied by more popu- (Fogarty 2008), although the uncertainties are great and lation growth and environmental deterioration, while are likely to remain so for a substantial period of time. politicians and elites fail to recognize the basic situation In any case, one only need look at cur­rent projections and focus on expanding their own wealth and power. for population shrinkage by mid-century due to AIDS On the population side, it is clear that avoiding in countries such as Botswana and widespread increases collapse would be a lot easier if humanity could entrain in hunger because of rising food (Lean 2008) to a gradual toward an optimal number. realize that if we continue on a business-as-usual course, Our group’s analysis of what that a full-scale death rate solution may soon be upon us. size might be like comes up with 1.5 to 2 billion, less than Much of the focus of The Bomb was on avoiding a col- one third of what it is today. We attempted to find a lapse of humanity’s global civilization from “three of the number that would maximize human options – enough four apocalyptic horsemen–war, pestilence, and famine” people to have large, exciting cities and still maintain (p. 69). Those horsemen were also doubtless involved in substantial tracts of wilderness for the enjoyment of out- most of the past local and regional collapses of which we doors enthusiasts and hermits (Daily et al. 1994). Even are aware – of Akkadia, Sumeria, Babylonia, more important would be the ability to maintain sus- Nineveh, Rome, the Classic Maya, Easter Island, Norse tainable agricultural systems and the crucial life support Greenland, and so on (e.g., Tainter 1988, Diamond 2005). services from natural ecosystems that humanity is so The same horsemen, joined by a fourth, toxification, rep- dependent upon. But too many people, especially those resent increasing threats today as globalization destroys in positions of power, remain blissfully unaware of that the safety valve of modularization and the civilization dependence.

68 the electronic journal of sustainable development www.ejsd.org

Conclusions more common in the scientific community today (e.g,, Hall and Day 2009). The same genius that allowed us The Population Bomb certainly had its flaws, which is to to achieve that dominance now must be harnessed if we be expected. Science never produces certainty. None- are to prevent our very success from sealing our doom. theless we are all, scientists or not, always attempting to We think, with all its warts, The Bomb did exactly what predict the future (will the stock go up or down? Will we had hoped – alerted people to the importance of he be a good husband? Will it rain later?). And when we environmental issues and brought human numbers into plan, we do the best we can. the debate on the human future. It was thus a successful One of our personal strategies has always been to have tract, and we’re proud of it. our work reviewed carefully by other scientists, and The Population Bomb was no exception. It was vetted by a series of scientists, including some who became top Notes leaders in the scientific enterprise. That is one reason that long ago the fundamental message of The Bomb moved 1. See http://www.listsofbests.com/list/92/. from a somewhat heterodox view to a nearly consensus 2. See http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=7591. view of the scientific community. Consider the following 3. See http://thinkexist.com/quotation/nature_has_color- two 1993 statements. The first was the World Scientists’ coded_groups_of_individuals_so/179145.html. Warning to Humanity, released by the Union of Con- 4. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_sci_ warming_scientist.html cerned Scientists (1993) and signed by more than 1500 For a more technical treatment see Hansen et al., 2008 of the world’s leading scientists, including more than half 5. Simon was also instigator of bets on the future of the of all living Nobel Laureates in science. The second was environment. For those interested in this episode a the joint statement by 58 of academies participating in detailed account with references can be found in Ehrlich the Population Summit of the World’s Scientific Acad- and Ehrlich (1996), pp. 100–104. emies, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 6. See http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/2006. the British Royal Society, and the Third World Academy 7. “Of all things in the world, people are the most precious. (National Academy of Sciences USA 1993). Under the leadership of the Communist Party, as The World Scientists’ Warning said in part: “Human long as there are people, every kind of miracle can be beings and the natural world are on a collision course. performed.” (The Bankruptcy of the Idealist Conception Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible of History.) http://www.marxists.org/subject/china/ damage on the environment and on critical resources. If peking-review/PR1975–02c.htm. not checked, many of our current practices put at serious 8. Who thought the “ultimate resource” was the human mind. risk the future that we wish for human society and the 9. Quoted in Africa Geographic 15, no. 7 (August 2007): p. plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living 112. world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner 10. All page references in The Population Bomb are to the that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we first edition. are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.” Part of the Academies’ pronouncement read: “the magnitude of the threat… is linked to human population References size and resource use per person. Resource use, waste production and environmental degradation are acceler- Aitkenhead D. 2008. Enjoy life while you can . ated by population growth. They are further exacerbated 1 March. by consumption habits.… With current technologies, Anonymous. 2008. The silent tsunami: food prices are present levels of consumption by the developed world causing misery around the world. Radical are are likely to lead to serious negative consequences for needed. The Economist 19 April: 13. Arrow K., Dasgupta P., Goulder L., Daily G., Ehrlich P., and all countries…. As human numbers further increase, the others. 2004. Are we consuming too much? Journal of potential for irreversible changes of far-reaching magni- Economic Perspectives 18: 147-172. tude also increases.” Beckerman W. 1972. Economists, scientists, and These statements recognized that humanity has environmental catastrophe. Oxford Economic Papers 24: reached a dangerous turning point in its domination 327-344. of the planet (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2008), a view even

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