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Authors are Paul and Anne Ehrlich, authors of the famous 1968 book "The Population Bomb" [1]. From early editions of that book: "The battle to feed all of huma
by my_first_acct 10y ago
Authors are Paul and Anne Ehrlich, authors of the famous 1968 book "The Population Bomb" [1].
From early editions of that book: "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."
Fortunately they were wrong, at least in their timing.
From their new article: "Environmental problems have contributed to numerous collapses of civilizations in the past. Now, for the first time, a global collapse appears likely. Overpopulation, overconsumption by the rich and poor choices of technologies are major drivers; dramatic cultural change provides the main hope of averting calamity."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
- astrodust 10y agoBased on available facts at the time it seemed like a reasonable conclusion but they should have also realized the facts they did have were limited. Chemical fertilizers, industrialization, mass production, these all got us out of a jam. The full effect of early bio-engineering efforts had yet to play out, and the work of Normal Borlaug (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug) wasn't in full swing. Today we're bumping up against different hard limits, like fresh water, which could cause enormous problems if not dealt with before it reaches a critical state.