A 1972 article about “The Population Bomb” biologist Paul Ehrlich reveals a nascent environmental movement grappling with mass sterilization, climate fears, “international policy planning,” and redistribution of wealth.
The article reveals dramatic parallels to today's modern environmental movement.
The article, “Expert on population pleased by response,” was part of the Newsweek Feature Service. It was written by William J. Cook.
Cook reported: "In 1969, [Ehrlich] said if voluntary birth reduction methods did not work a nation might have to resort to 'the addition of a temporary sterilant to staple food or to the water supply.' The proposal brought a charge from one newspaper critic that Ehrlich was 'worse than Hitler.'"
Cook continued: "One of his most controversial positions currently is that countries like the United States cannot urge underdeveloped nations to forego industrial development in the interest of ecology while it remains a burgeoning economic force.
"Two years ago, he and his wife wrote 'Population, Resources, Environment: Issues in Human Ecology.' In it, they urged the U.S. to 'de-develop' and restore its environment to set an example for the emerging countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa."
In another excerpt, Cook wrote on Ehrlich's views of China "And following President Nixon's China visit, he and biologist Dennis Pirages deplore the notion that Americans should help the Chinese achieve their present standard of living.
“An 'Americanized China,' they wrote, 'would consume nearly eight billion metric tons of coal equivalent in energy each year, more than the present total world consumption . . . these numbers mean that raising Chinese energy consumption to the American level would amount to doubling the environment impact of homo sapiens. Indeed, just the concentrated release of heat in parts of China containing most of the population could lead to major, unpredictable climatic effects.'”
The 1972 article also quoted Ehrlich foreshadowing today's calls for “global governance” to save the earth. Ehrlich said: “'You can't save the world's environment without biting the bullet, and without facing very, very tough things like the redistribution of wealth, how the world's trade system operates, the things the United States is doing to the ecology of Vietnam, the activities of the predator nations — the U.S., Western Europe, the Soviet Union — trying to extract high grade resources from underdeveloped countries.
"'If we're going to save the globe, we're going to have to have international policy planning.'”
Ehrlich's scientific work faced even more scrutiny when he lost a high profile bet with economist Julian Simon. In an article titled, “Baseless scares about resource scarcity and predictions of famine,” the ultimate embarrassment for the Malthusians was when Paul Ehrlich bet Julian Simon $1,000 in 1980 that five resources would be more expensive in 10 years. Ehrlich lost: 10 years later every one of the resources had declined in price by an average of 40 percent.
But despite Ehrlich's discredited scientific work on population issues and alleged resource scarcity, he still receives awards and honors from the modern environmental movement.
Ehrlich has also been in the news recently about a 1977 book he co-authored with President Obama's science czar John Holdren titled “Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment."
The book called for a “comprehensive Planetary Regime [that] could control development, distribution of all natural resources.'” (Also see,“White House Science Adviser Holdren and Ehrlich Advocated 'De-Development' of the United States.”
Fast forward to 2009, and Ehrlich, undaunted by his mishaps is still promoting fear mongering. In “Stanford’s Paul Ehrlich wins environmental award in Spain”
he says, "Americans should go childless, or limit themselves to a single offspring, as an act of patriotism."
Sadly, Ehrlich's views on the human race now permeate many of today's global warming and environmental activists.
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