Paul R. Ehrlich
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Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his predictions and warnings about the consequences of
population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The World population, global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to aroun ...
, including
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
and
resource depletion Resource depletion occurs when a natural resource is consumed faster than it can be replenished. The value of a resource depends on its availability in nature and the cost of extracting it. By the law of supply and demand, the Scarcity, scarcer ...
. Ehrlich is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. Ehrlich became well known for the controversial 1968 book '' The Population Bomb,'' which he co-authored with his wife
Anne H. Ehrlich Anne Howland Ehrlich (born Anne Fitzhugh Howland; November 17, 1933) is an American scientist and author who is best known for the predictions she made as a co-author of ''The Population Bomb'' with her colleague and husband, Paul R. Ehrlich. She ...
, in which they famously stated that " the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now." This position has led historians and critics to describe Ehrlich as a neo-Malthusian. There are mixed views on Ehrlich's assertions on the dangers of expanding human populations. While statistician Paul A. Murtaugh says that Ehrlich was largely correct, Ehrlich has been criticized for his approach and views, both for their pessimistic outlook and for the failure of his predictions. As of 2004, Ehrlich has acknowledged that population growth is in decline, but believes
overconsumption Overconsumption describes a situation where consumers overuse their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this is the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater ...
by wealthy nations is a major problem. He maintains that his warnings about disease and
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
were essentially correct. Journalist Dan Gardner criticizes Ehrlich for his cognitive dissonance in forecasting, asserting that Ehrlich takes credit for his successful predictions but fails to acknowledge his mistakes.


Early life, education, and academic career

Ehrlich was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, the son of William Ehrlich and Ruth Rosenberg. His father was a shirt salesman and his mother was a Greek and
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
scholar and public school teacher. Ehrlich's mother's Reform-Jewish German ancestors arrived in the United States in the 1840s, and his paternal grandparents emigrated there later from the Galician and Transylvanian part of the Austrian Empire. During his childhood his family moved to
Maplewood, New Jersey Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's popula ...
, where he attended
Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to: *Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama) *Columbia High School (Georgia) *Columbia High School (Florida) *Columbia High School (Idaho) *Columbia High School (Illinois) *Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...
, graduating in 1949. By training, Ehrlich is an
entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
specializing in
Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...
(butterflies). He earned a bachelor's degree in
zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
from the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1953, an M.A. from the
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...
in 1955, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1957, supervised by the prominent bee researcher Charles Duncan Michener (the title of his dissertation: "The Morphology, Phylogeny and Higher Classification of the Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea)"). During his studies he participated with surveys of
insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
s in the areas of the
Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...
and
Canadian arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...
, and then with a
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
fellowship, investigated the genetics and behavior of parasitic
mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...
s. In 1959 he joined the faculty at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. He became well known for popularizing the term
coevolution In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well a ...
in an influential 1964 paper co-authored with the botanist Peter H. Raven, where they proposed that an evolutionary 'arms-race' between plants and insects explains the extreme diversification of plants and insects. This paper was highly influential on the then-nascent field of
chemical ecology A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...
. He was promoted to professor of
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
in 1966, and appointed to the Bing Professorship in 1977. In 1984, he founded the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. He is a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
, the United States
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.


Overpopulation debate

A lecture that Ehrlich gave on the topic of overpopulation at the Commonwealth Club of California was broadcast by radio in April 1967. The success of the lecture caused further publicity, and the suggestion from David Brower the executive director of the environmentalist
Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...
, and Ian Ballantine of
Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...
to write a book concerning the topic. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne H. Ehrlich, collaborated on the book, '' The Population Bomb'', but the publisher insisted that a single author be credited; only Paul's name appears as an author. Although Ehrlich was not the first to warn about population issues — concern had been widespread during the 1950s and 1960s — his charismatic and media-savvy methods helped publicize the topic. ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Johnny Carson, it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing ''T ...
'' had Ehrlich on as a guest more than twenty times, with one interview lasting an hour.


Writings


''The Population Bomb'' (1968)

The original edition of ''The Population Bomb'' began with the statement: Ehrlich argued that the human population was too great, and that while the extent of disaster could be mitigated, humanity could not prevent severe
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
s, the spread of disease,
social unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, civil strife, or turmoil, are situations when law enforcement and security forces struggle to Public order policing, maintain public order or tranquility. Causes Any number of thin ...
, and other negative consequences of overpopulation. Ehrlich has proposed different solutions to the problem of overpopulation. In ''The Population Bomb'' he wrote, "We must have population control at home, hopefully through a system of incentives and penalties, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail. We must use our political power to push other countries into programs which combine agricultural development and population control." Voluntary measures he has endorsed include the easiest possible availability of
birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...
and
abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
. Decades later, Ehrlich's continued prominence and the failure of the book's predictions to materialize led to renewed scrutiny and criticism. The New York Times said his "apocalyptic predictions fell as flat as ancient theories about the shape of the Earth". Science author Charles C. Mann wrote that the book's predictions "fueled an anti-population-growth crusade that led to human rights abuses around the world", including coercive population control policies and even forced sterilizations. Ehrlich's pointed criticism of India in particular (for instance, emphasizing the overpopulation of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
rather than
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, which had nearly triple Delhi's population at the time of writing) has been criticized for focusing much more on "feelings" than on actual data. Neither of the Ehrlichs have ever publicly renounced predictions, instead insisting that they were largely correct, despite the errors noted by many experts.


''The Population Explosion'' (1990)

''The Population Explosion'' argues that the population catastrophe outlined in the Ehrlichs' earlier work ''The Population Bomb'' had in fact come to pass, and that "hunger is rife and famine and plague ever more imminent". Many accepted the premise of a looming population problem, with the New York Times writing that "it is not merely prudent but imperative that we confront population issues, and do so now". Notwithstanding this wide agreement, the Ehrlichs were criticized for an "alarmist" tone. The book was also criticised for its approach to family planning, arguing against increased family planning efforts aimed at empowering individuals and families. The Ehrlichs were accused of advocating the curtailment of reproductive freedoms and giving the state a larger role in such decisions, while leaving ambiguous "just how authoritarian a solution they are willing to endorse." Subsequent attention to the book scrutinized its descriptions of an unfolding overpopulation catastrophe. The book's contention that global food production had already peaked proved to be incorrect. Similarly, the prediction that India faced catastrophic food shortage in the 1990s failed to materialize.


''Optimum Human Population Size'' (1994)

In this paper, the Ehrlichs discussed their opinion on the 'optimal size' for human population, given their assessment of the current technological situation. They referred to establishing "social policies to influence fertility rates."


After 2000

During a 2004 interview, Ehrlich answered questions about the predictions he made in ''The Population Bomb''. He acknowledged that some of what he had published had not occurred, but stated that he felt "little embarrassment" and reaffirmed his basic opinion that overpopulation is a major problem. He noted that, "Fifty-eight academies of science said that same thing in 1994, as did the world scientists' warning to humanity in the same year. My view has become depressingly mainline!" Ehrlich also asserted that 600 million people were very hungry while billions were under-nourished, and insisted that his predictions about disease and climate change were essentially correct. Retrospectively, Ehrlich said that ''The Population Bomb'', which predicted a widespread famine by 1985 that never materialized, was actually "way too optimistic". In a 2008 discussion hosted by the website ''Salon'', Paul Ehrlich was more critical of the United States specifically, claiming that it should control its population and consumption as an example to the rest of the world. He still professed a belief that governments should discourage people from having more than two children, suggesting, for example, a higher tax rate for larger families. In 2011, as the world's population passed the seven billion mark, Ehrlich argued that the next two billion people on Earth would cause more damage than the previous two billion, as humans now increasingly would have to resort to using more marginal and environmentally damaging resources. As of 2013, Ehrlich continued to perform policy research concerning population and resource issues, with an emphasis upon
endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
, cultural evolution,
environmental ethics In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...
, and the preservation of genetic resources. Along with Dr. Gretchen Daily, he performed work in countryside
biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...
; that is, the study of making human-disturbed areas hospitable to
biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
. His research group at Stanford University examined extensive natural populations of the
Bay checkerspot butterfly The Bay checkerspot (''Euphydryas editha bayensis'') is a butterfly endemic to the San Francisco Bay region of the U.S. state of California. It is a federally threatened species, as a subspecies of '' Euphydryas editha''. Since the 1980s the p ...
(''Euphydryas editha bayensis''). The population-related disaster that Ehrlich predicted has failed to materialize, including the "hundreds of millions" of starvation deaths in the 1970s and the tens of millions of deaths in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Slowing of population growth rates and new food production technologies have increased the food supply faster than the population. Nonetheless, Ehrlich continues to stand by his general thesis that the human population is too large, posing a direct threat to human survival and the environment of the planet. Indeed, he states that if he were to write the book today, "My language would be even more apocalyptic." In 2018, he emphasized his view that the optimum population size is between 1.5 and 2 billion people. In 2022, he was a contributor to the "Scientists' warning on population," published by '' Science of the Total Environment'', which estimated that a sustainable population would be between 2 and 4 billion people.


Reception

During the 1960s and 70s when Ehrlich made his most alarming warnings, there was a widespread belief among experts that population growth presented an extremely serious threat to the future of human civilization, although differences existed regarding the severity of the situation, and how to decrease it. In the decades since, critics have disputed Ehrlich's main thesis about overpopulation and its effects on the environment and human society, and his solutions, as well as his specific predictions made since the late 1960s. A common criticism is that Ehrlich's predictions routinely failed to come true, for instance Ronald Bailey of ''
Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
'' magazine has termed him an "irrepressible doomster ... who, as far as I can tell, has never been right in any of his forecasts of imminent catastrophe." On the first
Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) includin ...
in 1970, he warned that " ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish." In a 1971 speech, he predicted that: "By the year 2000 the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people." "If I were a gambler," Professor Ehrlich concluded before boarding an airplane, " I would take even money that
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
will not exist in the year 2000." When this scenario did not occur, he responded that "When you predict the future, you get things wrong. How wrong is another question. I would have lost if I had had taken the bet. However, if you look closely at England, what can I tell you? They're having all kinds of problems, just like everybody else." Ehrlich wrote in ''The Population Bomb'' that, "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980." In 1967, Ehrlich called to cut off emergency food aid to India as "hopeless". This position was later criticized, as India's food production subsequently skyrocketed through the Green Revolution in India, and its per capita caloric intake rose significantly in the following decades, even as its population doubled. Canadian journalist Dan Gardner, in his 2010 book ''Future Babble'', argues that Ehrlich has been insufficiently forthright in acknowledging errors he made, while being intellectually dishonest or evasive in taking credit for things he claims he got "right". For example, he rarely acknowledges the mistakes he made in predicting material shortages, massive death tolls from starvation (as many as one billion in the publication ''Age of Affluence'') or regarding the disastrous effects on specific countries. Meanwhile, he is happy to claim credit for "predicting" the increase of
AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
or global warming. However, in the case of disease, Ehrlich had predicted the increase of a disease based on overcrowding, or the weakened immune systems of starving people, so it is "a stretch to see this as forecasting the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s." Similarly, global warming was one of the scenarios that Ehrlich described, so claiming credit for it, while disavowing responsibility for failed scenarios is a double standard. Gardner believes that Ehrlich is displaying classical signs of
cognitive dissonance In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as a mental phenomenon in which people unknowingly hold fundamentally conflicting cognitions. Being confronted by situations that challenge this dissonance may ultimately result in some ...
, and that his failure to acknowledge obvious errors of his own judgement render his current thinking suspect. Barry Commoner has criticized Ehrlich's 1970 statement that "When you reach a point where you realize further efforts will be futile, you may as well look after yourself and your friends and enjoy what little time you have left. That point for me is 1972." Gardner has criticized Ehrlich for endorsing the strategies proposed by William and Paul Paddock in their book '' Famine 1975!''. They had proposed a system of "triage" that would end food aid to "hopeless" countries such as India and Egypt. In ''Population Bomb'', Ehrlich suggests that "there is no rational choice except to adopt some form of the Paddocks' strategy as far as food distribution is concerned." Had this strategy been implemented for countries such as India and Egypt, which were reliant on food aid at that time, they would almost certainly have suffered famines. Instead, both Egypt and India have greatly increased their food production and now feed much larger populations without reliance on food aid.


Left-wing critics

Another group of critics, generally of the political left, argues that Ehrlich emphasizes overpopulation too much as a problem in itself instead of distribution of resources. Barry Commoner argued that Ehrlich emphasized overpopulation too much as the source of environmental problems, and that his proposed solutions were politically unacceptable because of the coercion that they implied, and because they would cost poor people disproportionately. He argued that technological, and above all social development would result in a natural decrease of both population growth and environmental damage. Ehrlich denies any type of racism, and has argued that if his policy ideas were implemented properly they would not be repressive. In a 2018 interview with ''The Guardian'', Ehrlich, while still proud of ''The Population Bomb'' for starting a worldwide debate on the issues of population, acknowledged weaknesses of the book including not placing enough emphasis on
overconsumption Overconsumption describes a situation where consumers overuse their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this is the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater ...
and inequality, and countering accusations of racism. He argues "too many rich people in the world is a major threat to the human future, and cultural and genetic diversity are great human resources." He advocated for an "unprecedented redistribution of wealth" in order to mitigate the problem of overconsumption of resources by the world's wealthy, but said "the rich who now run the global system — that hold the annual 'world destroyer' meetings in Davos — are unlikely to let it happen." Ehrlich and his colleague Rodolfo Dirzo argued in a 2022 perspective paper for the need to reduce fertility rates among "the overconsuming wealthy and middle classes", and wasteful consumption in general, with the ultimate goal being to reduce "the scale of the human enterprise" in order to mitigate the contemporary extinction crisis.


Simon–Ehrlich wager

The economist Julian Simon argued in 1980 that overpopulation is not a problem as such and that humanity will adapt to changing conditions. Simon argued that eventually human creativity will improve living standards, and that most resources were replaceable. Simon stated that over hundreds of years, the prices of virtually all commodities had decreased significantly and persistently. Ehrlich termed Simon the proponent of a "space-age cargo cult" of economists convinced that human creativity and ingenuity would create substitutes for scarce resources and reasserted the idea that population growth was outstripping the Earth's supplies of food, fresh water and minerals. This exchange resulted in the Simon–Ehrlich wager, a bet about the trend of prices for resources during a ten-year period that was made with Simon in 1980. Ehrlich was allowed to choose ten commodities that he predicted would become scarce and thus increase in price. Ehrlich chose mostly metals, and lost the bet, as their average price decreased by about 30% in the next 10 years. Simon and Ehrlich could not agree about the terms of a second bet.


Ehrlich's response to critics

Consistent with Norman Borlaug's Nobel Prize
speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...
, Ehrlich has argued that humanity has simply deferred the disaster by the use of more intensive agricultural techniques, such as those introduced during the
Green Revolution The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in Developed country , devel ...
. Ehrlich claims that increasing populations and affluence are increasingly stressing the global environment, due to such factors as loss of biodiversity,
overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...
,
global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
,
urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...
, chemical pollution and competition for raw materials. He maintains that due to growing global incomes, reducing consumption and human population is critical to protecting the environment and maintaining living standards, and that current rates of growth are still too great for a sustainable future.


Other activities

Ehrlich was one of the initiators of the group
Zero Population Growth Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG, is a condition of demography, demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither population growth, grows nor population decline, declines; that is, the number of bi ...
(renamed Population Connection) in 1968, along with Richard Bowers and Charles Lee Remington. In 1971, Ehrlich was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board. He and his wife Anne were part of the board of advisers of the
Federation for American Immigration Reform The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a nonprofit, anti-immigration organization in the United States. The group publishes position papers, organizes events, and runs campaigns in order to advocate for changes in U.S. immigr ...
until 2003. He is currently a patron of Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust). Consistent with his concern about the impact of pollution and in response to a doctoral dissertation by his student Edward Goth III, Ehrlich wrote in 1977 that, "Fluorides have been shown to concentrate in food chains, and evidence suggesting a potential for significant ecological effects is accumulating." Ehrlich has spoken at conferences in Israel on the issue of
desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...
. He has argued "true Zionists should have small families".


Personal life

Ehrlich has been married to Anne H. Ehrlich (née Howland) since December 1954; they have one daughter, Lisa Marie. He announced that he had had a
vasectomy Vasectomy is an elective surgical procedure that results in male sterilization, often as a means of permanent contraception. During the procedure, the male vasa deferentia are cut and tied or sealed so as to prevent sperm from entering into ...
in 1963 after his child's birth.


Awards and honors

* The John Muir Award of the
Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...
* The Gold Medal Award of the
World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...
International * A MacArthur Prize Fellowship * The
Crafoord Prize The Crafoord Prize () is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord following a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is awarded jointly by the Acade ...
, awarded by the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...
and considered the highest award given in the field of ecology * ECI Prize winner in terrestrial ecology, 1993 * A World Ecology Award from the International Center for Tropical Ecology,
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
, 1993 * The Volvo Environmental Prize, 1993 * The
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
Sasakawa Environment Prize, 1994 * The 1st Annual
Heinz Award The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Foundations, Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Eco ...
in the Environment (with Anne Ehrlich), 1995 * The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, 1998 * The Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, 1998 * The Blue Planet Prize, 1999 * The Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America, 2001 * The Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2001 * Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology of the Generalitat of Catalonia, 2009 * Fellow of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
of London 2012 * 2013 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology


Works


Books

* ''How to Know the Butterflies'' (1960) * ''Process of Evolution'' (1963) * ''Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution'' (1964) * '' The Population Bomb'' (1968, revised 1971, updated 1978, re-issued 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018) * ''Population, Resources, Environments: Issues in Human Ecology'' (1970) * ''How to Be a Survivor'' (1971) * ''Man and the Ecosphere: Readings from Scientific American'' (1971) * ''Population, Resources, Environments: Issues in Human Ecology Second Edition'' (1972) * ''Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions'' (1973) * ''Introductory Biology'' (1973) * ''The End of Affluence'' (1975) * ''Biology and Society'' (1976) * ''Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment'' (1978) * ''The Race Bomb'' (1978) * ''Extinction'' (1981) * ''The Golden Door: International Migration, Mexico, and the United States'' (1981) * '' The Cold and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War'' (1984, with
Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including e ...
, Donald Kennedy, and Walter Orr Roberts) * ''The Machinery of Nature: The Living World Around Us and How it Works'' (1986) * ''Earth'' (1987, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich) * ''Science of Ecology'' (1987, with Joan Roughgarden) * ''The Cassandra Conference: Resources and the Human Predicament'' (1988) * ''The Birder's Handbook: A field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds'' (1988, with David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye) * ''New World, New Mind: Moving Towards Conscious Evolution'' (1988, co-authored with Robert E. Ornstein) * ''The Population Explosion'' (1990, with Anne Ehrlich) * ''Healing the Planet: Strategies for Resolving the Environmental Crisis'' (1991, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich) * ''Birds in Jeopardy: The Imperiled and Extinct Birds of the United States and Canada, Including Hawaii and Puerto Rico'' (1992, with David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye) * ''The Stork and the Plow : The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma'' (1995, with Anne Ehrlich and Gretchen C. Daily) * ''A World of Wounds: Ecologists and the Human Dilemma'' (1997) * ''Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environment Rhetoric Threatens Our Future'' (1998, with Anne Ehrlich) * '' Wild Solutions: How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank'' (2001, with Andrew Beattie) * ''Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect'' (2002) * ''One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future'' (2004, with Anne Ehrlich) * ''On the Wings of Checkerspots: A Model System for Population Biology'' (2004, edited volume, co-edited with Ilkka Hanski) * ''The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment'' (2008, with Anne Ehrlich) * ''Humanity on a Tightrope: Thoughts on Empathy, Family, and Big Changes for a Viable Future'' (2010, with Robert E. Ornstein) * ''Conservation Biology for All'' (2010, edited volume, co-edited with Navjot S. Sodhi) * ''Hope on Earth: A Conversation'' (2014, co-authored with Michael Charles Tobias) * ''Killing the Koala and Poisoning the Prairie: Australia, America and the Environment'' (2015, co-authored with Corey J. A. Bradshaw) ISBN 978-0-226-31698-7 * ''The Annihilation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals'' (2015, with Anne Ehrlich and Gerardo Ceballos) * ''Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic'' (2018, with Sandra Kahn)


Papers

* * * *


See also

*
Demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...
* Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth), a non-profit founded by Ehrlich * Moral panic * Netherlands fallacy * Escape and radiate coevolution


References


Cited books

*


Further reading

* Robertson, Thomas. (2012) ''The Malthusian Moment: Global Population Growth and the Birth of American Environmentalism'', Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, New Jersey. .


External links


Paul R. Ehrlich's faculty web page at Stanford University


* * ttp://www.docstoc.com/docs/12166078/Population-Bomb-Revisited "The Population Bomb Revisited" ''Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development'', 2009
Several online Paul Ehrlich interviews
* from '' Mother Earth News''
Paul R. Ehrlich and the prophets of doom
A look at Ehrlich's treatment of
exponential growth Exponential growth occurs when a quantity grows as an exponential function of time. The quantity grows at a rate directly proportional to its present size. For example, when it is 3 times as big as it is now, it will be growing 3 times as fast ...
.
Paul Ehrlich, a prophet of global population doom who is gloomier than ever
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
.'' October 2011.
Paul R. Ehrlich Papers
(
finding aid A finding aid, in the context of archival science and archival research, is an organization tool, a document containing detailed and processed metadata and other information about a specific collection of records within an archive. Finding aids ...
to an archival collection at Stanford University's University Archives, most not available online) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrlich, Paul R. 1932 births Living people 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Activists from California American conservation biologists American ecologists American entomologists American male non-fiction writers American non-fiction environmental writers American sustainability advocates Columbia High School (New Jersey) alumni Environmental philosophers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Ecological Society of America Foreign members of the Royal Society Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish American scientists MacArthur Fellows Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Sierra Club awardees Stanford University Department of Biology faculty University of Kansas alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Winners of the Heineken Prize Winners of the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology Writers from Maplewood, New Jersey Malthusians