The Population Bomb, 50 Years Later: A Conversation with Paul Ehrlich

“In 1968, the best-seller The Population Bomb, written by Paul and Anne Ehrlich (but credited solely to Paul) warned of the perils of overpopulation: mass starvation, societal upheaval, environmental deterioration. The book was criticized at the time for painting an overly dark picture of the future. But while not all of the Ehrlichs’s dire predictions have come to pass, the world’s population has doubled since then, to over seven billion, straining the planet’s resources and heating up our climate. Can the earth continue to support an ever-increasing number of humans? On its 50th anniversary, [Climate One] revisits The Population Bomb with Paul Ehrlich.”

Greg Dalton with Climate One talks to Paul R. Ehrlich about how we’re coping with our ever-more crowded world, and what we could be doing better.

My view has been for a long time that I’m very pessimistic about the future but very optimistic about what we could do.  I have to say that over the last decade or so, I’ve become less optimistic about what we could do for among other things, of course, because we’re not trying any of it.

…we should be thinking among other things, of not stealing from our children and grandchildren saving as much of the resources that are necessary for human life, including the living resources and hoping that they will be able to find ways to continue.

Listen to the full interview

Climate One is a special project of The Commonwealth Club of California. Kelli Pennington directs audience engagement. Carlos Manuel and Tyler Reed are the producers. The audio engineer is Mark Kirschner. Anny Celsi and Devon Strolovitch edit the show The Commonwealth Club CEO is Dr. Gloria Duffy. Climate One is presented in association with KQED Public Radio.