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The Population Bomb

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1968 book predicting worldwide famine

[[Anne H. Ehrlich|Anne Howland Ehrlich]]"},"illustrator":{"wt":""},"cover_artist":{"wt":""},"country":{"wt":"United States"},"language":{"wt":"English"},"series":{"wt":""},"subject":{"wt":"Population"},"publisher":{"wt":"[[Sierra Club Books|Sierra Club]][[Ballantine Books]]"},"release_date":{"wt":"1968"},"media_type":{"wt":""},"pages":{"wt":"201"},"isbn":{"wt":"1-56849-587-0"},"preceded_by":{"wt":""},"followed_by":{"wt":""}},"i":0}}]}'>The Population Bomb AuthorsPaul R. Ehrlich<br>Anne Howland EhrlichLanguageEnglishSubjectPopulationPublisherSierra Club<br>Ballantine BooksPublication date1968Publication placeUnited StatesPages201ISBN1-56849-587-0

The Population Bomb is a 1968 book co-authored by former Stanford University professor Paul R. Ehrlich and former Stanford senior researcher in conservation biology Anne H. Ehrlich.[1][2] From the opening page, it predicted worldwide famines due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a "population explosion" existed in the mid-20th century baby boom years, but the book and its authors brought the idea to an even wider audience.[3][4][5]

The book has been criticized since its publication for an alarmist tone, and over the subsequent decades, for inaccurate assertions and failed predictions. For instance, regional famines have occurred since the publication of the book, but not world famines. The Ehrlichs themselves continued to stand by the book despite the flaws identified by its critics, with Paul stating in 2009 that "perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that it was much too optimistic about the future," despite having predicted catastrophic global famines that never came to pass. They believe that it achieved their goals because "it alerted people to the importance of environmental issues and brought human numbers into the debate on the human future."[1] Others have argued that the basic thesis of the book was "far more prescient than most in recognizing the diverse contemporary threats posed by the size and growth rate of the human population, not only to adequate food supply but also to Earth’s climate, air quality, fresh water, and biodiversity, as well as to the management capacity of governments."[6]

General description of the book<br>[edit]

Graph of human population from 10,000 BC to 2017 AD. It shows the extremely rapid growth in the world population since the eighteenth century.

The Population Bomb was written at the suggestion of David Brower, the executive director of the environmentalist Sierra Club, and Ian Ballantine of Ballantine Books following various public appearances Ehrlich had made regarding population issues and their relation to the environment. Although the Ehrlichs collaborated on the book, the publisher insisted that a single author be credited, and also asked to change their preferred title: Population, Resources, and Environment.[1] The title Population Bomb was taken (with permission) from General William H. Draper, founder of the Population Crisis Committee and a widely spread pamphlet The Population Bomb is Everyone's Baby issued in 1954 by the Hugh Moore Fund.[7][8] The Ehrlichs regret the choice of title, which they admit was a perfect choice from a marketing perspective, but think that "it led Paul to be miscategorized as solely focused on human numbers, despite our interest in all the factors affecting the human trajectory."[1]

Early editions of The Population Bomb began with the statement:

The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate...[9]

Much of the book is spent describing the state of the environment and the food security situation, which is described as increasingly dire. The Ehrlichs argue that as the existing population was not being fed adequately, and as it was growing rapidly, it was unreasonable to expect sufficient improvements in food production to feed everyone. They further argued that the growing population placed escalating strains on all aspects of the natural world. "What needs to be done?" they wrote, "We must rapidly bring the world population under control, reducing the growth rate to zero or making it negative. Conscious regulation of human numbers must be achieved. Simultaneously we must, at least temporarily, greatly increase our food production."

Possible solutions<br>[edit]

Paul and Anne Ehrlich described a number of "ideas on how these goals might be reached."[10] They believed...