The Population Explosion [Paperback]

Paul R. Ehrlich (Author), Anne H. Ehrlich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1991

The Population Explosion vividly describes how the Earth's population, growing by 95 million people a year, is rapidly depleting the planet's resources, resulting in famine, global warming, acid rain, and other major problems. Paul and Anne Ehrlich also clearly and concisely point to immediate action that will lessen the threat of ruin and begin to build a more peaceful, sane, and secure world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Ehrlichs, articulate and respected advocates of global population control, present an unequivocal message: the world's growing population dwarfs the ecosystem's capacity to sustain life--either humanity will implement massive birth-control programs, or nature will intervene and greatly reduce the number of people through famines, plagues and ecodisasters. This important book (a sequel to Paul Ehrlich's 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb ) sounds an alarm we can ill afford to ignore. Proceeding country by country, the authors, Stanford environmental scientists, map the connections between overpopulation, exhaustion of soils and groundwater, global warming, pollution, depletion of resources, dwindling biodiversity and the widening gap between rich and poor nations. Recognizing that their cause will be an uphill battle, especially in the U.S., they outline steps the average person can take to support planned population shrinkage and a less ecologically wasteful lifestyle. Author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- An offering of practical solutions to individuals, families, nations, and international organizations for preserving the Earth. This is a thought-provoking book, demanding actions that could lead to a hopeful outcome for the Earth and its people. If citizens and public officials examine personal, national, and international lifestyles and provide grassroots leadership to confront population growth and the ensuing crisis, the Ehrlichs argue that there is cause for hope. Upbeat in approach, the book zeroes in on a high-priority concern in a conscientious and intelligent manner, rather than propagandizing or threatening through scare tactics, but the authors never sugar-coat their strong concern for the survival of an environmentally sound world able to sustain the human family and the entire ecosystem. This action-oriented book will provoke much discussion and will serve as an excellent resource for social-studies and ecology courses. --Mary T. Gerrity, Queen Anne School, Upper Marlboro, MD
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone Books; 1st Touchstone edition (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671732943
• ISBN-13: 978-0671732943
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #874,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Timely but oversimplified, July 26, 2000

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Population Explosion (Paperback)

The book is a sequel to an earlier, very successful discussion of population pressures. Key to the Erlichs' approach here is the formula I=PAT, which stands for Impact equals Population times Affluence times Technology. The larger any one of these factors, the higher the product, i.e. the impact - all other factors remaining equal. By "technology" and "affluence", the authors presumably intend the environmentally destructive types of each, though how qualitative differences can be expressed qualitatively is left largely unexplained. Clearly the equation aims at a very generalized and imprecise level of abstraction, more suitable for detecting trends than setting policy. Whether such streamlining conceals more variability than it reveals is not really discussed and clouds the work as a whole.

Central to the book is the impact of one particular factor, namely P or population. Growth increases in this category alone, as I=PAT shows, can undo strides in all other categories combined. At bottom, the book represents an assessment of these far-reaching population impacts plus specific projections based on current figures in all categories. In that topical sense the work is not strictly theoretical and though certain Malthusian themes are sounded, the work is not a gloomy updating of unavoidable doom. Changes in growth patterns can make a lasting difference, the authors are anxious to inform.

Sheer numbers of people, however, do not tell the whole impact story, which is why the Erlich's have included the factor of "affluence" in one of their better sections. In the role of affluent consumers, not all people count the same. Because of their greater consuption level, citizens of richer nations, for example, have much greater impact on world resources than people in poorer countries. Thus, as their equation shows, population reductions among the industrialized have a disproportionately helpful effect on world resources. Promisingly, population growth rates in richer areas such as western Europe and the U.S. have slackened with increasing levels of affluence, which indicates an important correlation between birth-rate and material well-being. Thus economic class emerges as an important factor to gaining a sustainable environment and I wish the authors had spent more time emphasizing this.

The book has many good points, but unfortunately lacks impact and real analytic depth. Probably, as a work aimed at a mass audience, analytic depth was not intended. Moreover, being a sequel to a widely discussed first book creates a tough act to follow. Nevertheless, aside from some useful statistics, more questions are posed than answered.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rational explanation of a frightening problem., January 6, 1999

By 

John Kubalak ([e-mail]) (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Population Explosion (Paperback)

The Population Explosion is the follow-up to The Population Bomb (written by the same author twenty years ago). In this book he examines the results of the issues he raised in the first book as well as some of the new dangers of overpopulation created by contemporary reproductive science and ecological damage.

Early in the book he explains why overpopulation is such a pressing, but invisible problem. Occasionally his frustration with the problems he describes comes through but despite this the book comes across as an even-handed and rational examination of the facts.

In an age when women are giving birth to seven or eight children at a time because they're taking fertility drugs in a mad effort to procreate there is no better time to learn about the consequences.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It might make you think about what we are doing to the Earth, February 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Population Explosion (Paperback)

This book provides an excellent synopsis of the state of our environment. Using more than just apocalyptic rhetoric, Ehrlich presents the subject matter with a keen sense of humanity and provides suggestions as to how we must change our society to avoid the dire consequences of uninhibited growth.

A great introduction for those who are concerned about the pollution next door or the pesticides on the fruit we eat or in the environment in general.

READ...READ...READ..Then pass it on.