The Population Bomb [Hardcover]

Paul R. Ehrlich (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 201 pages
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books; First Edition edition (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568495870
• ISBN-13: 978-1568495873
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 33 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Julian Simon is the master of this Topic December 22, 1999

By Charles G. Harris

Format:Hardcover

As a fifth grader I was convinced and very scared by Ehrlich's predictions. I became very interested in the environmental issues that Ehrlich helped make popular. However, upon studying the subject in greater detail I realized that a free society is best prepared to deal with any environmental issues. The facts and research uncovered by Julian Simon convinced me that wealth created by human being helps the environment. Poverty (which is caused by government regulation and totalitarian states) is the biggest threat to the environment. All of Ehrlich's predictions have been shown to be shortsighted and wrong. Read "Population Bomb" but only if you follow it by reading Julian Simon's "The Ultimate Resource", otherwise you will be gullible to the scaremongering politicians warnings that you must give up your individual freedoms in order to save the planet.

128 of 188 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars It can't survive hindsight August 13, 2002

By William E. Fleischmann

Format:Hardcover

Paul Ehrlich begins the work that gave him instant notoriety (infamy) by saying: "I have understood the population explosion intellectually for a long time."

He spends the next 180 pages proving conclusively that such is not the case.

It isn't simply that his predictions turned out to be wrong in some of the particulars, but rather that they were so completely wrong that they will NEVER come to pass (though he unrepentantly continues to beat the same drum).

Ehrlich predicted that, by the end of the 20th century, human want would outstrip available resources; whole areas of human endeavor would screech to a halt due to resource scarcity; England would, in all likelihood, cease to exist; India would collapse due to its inability to feed itself; and "inevitable" mass starvation would sweep the globe (including the US). We were on the brink of disaster in 1968, and the future looked very, very dark. In fact, he asserts, "it is now too late to take action to save many of those people."

And yet none of these things have come to pass. Why? Because Ehrlich makes the same mistake that Malthus did: he confuses the concept of finite resources with the notion that they (and the demand for them) are fixed. This is the point that Ehrlich's detractors (most notably Julian Simon) have been making for decades.

Ehrlich did not foresee the technological innovations (the Green Revolution) that have been such a boon to mankind, or changes in both the supply and demand of various resources (such as those in his famous bet with Simon). But such changes were inevitable (far more than the catastrophe that he predicted). The entire history of human endeavor is adaptive. As resources become more scarce, their costs rise. As those costs rise, incentives are created to find alternatives or increase supply or decrease demand. Thus, assuming that either resource availability and/or per capita demand is fixed is not merely an oversight - it is inexcusably poor science.

This is also why claims that "The Population Bomb" was some sort of self-correcting prophecy - that by drawing attention to the problem, disaster was averted - hold no water. This fallacy is based on the assumption that long-term concerns about population growth are somehow more pressing than current hunger problems. Norman Borlaug (one of many involved in the Green Revolution) would have a good laugh about that one. Unfortunately, the major cause of hunger in the world today (in countries like Ethiopia) is not resource scarcity, but political realities (despots) that prevent access to food.

One last point to Ehrlich's defenders: much has been made about cancer rates (and Simon's purported unwillingness to bet on them). But a rise in cancer incidence was to be expected, not because of pollutants or chemicals or environmental degradations, but because cancer is primarily a disease of the aged. The population "explosion" did not occur because more children were/are being born (the opposite is true), but that children were/are no longer "dropping like flies." The average age of the population has risen markedly and so, of course, has the incidence of age related diseases.

My favorite example of Ehrlich-speak: "Enough of fantasy.... Just remember that, at the current growth rate, in a few thousand years everything in the visible universe would be converted into people, and the ball of people would be expanding at the speed of light."

I'm SO glad he'd had "enough of fantasy."

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Keep your enemies closer April 20, 2012

By Morphew

Format:Hardcover

This was a decent book, but not because I agree with any of the content. I believe in keeping your enemies closer, and any who seek population control through force, or still hold ties to the underground eugenics movement are my sworn enemy. This progressive thought process inspired Hitler's genocide and these people are still hiding in the shadows trying to enforce policies to control population. While I do believe overpopulation is a huge issue for the plant, that is for god to decide, not me. This has been a globalist plan for over a century and I firmly believe is behind this whole global warming nonsense. The only way to get the masses to accept their plans is the replace worship of God with worship of the Earth. If everyone treats the Earth as God, and believes they are killing said God, then they will go along with inhumane acts for the greater good.

You cannot fight an enemy you do not understand, and thus I recommend every person with a Heart and Soul read this book and recognize these thought processes for the threat they are.