Ehrlich’s predictions are lame
Paul Ehrlich predicted the following in 1968: Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in the 1970s. Never happened.
In 1974: we will run out of proven oil reserves by 2000; proven oil reserves are now 50% larger than in 1974.
In 1975: India is no longer a viable entity; agricultural advances have largely eliminated starvation in India. England will probably not exist by 2000; no comment.
His latest prediction: the world will soon run out of food and we “will be eating our own dead” to survive. Mr. Ehrlich’s suggestions to prevent this catastrophe are “coercive birth control” and allowing countries like India to starve to death as a “triage” action. Considering his track record and his misanthropic solutions to problems that are unlikely to happen, why would anyone cite him as an authority on the future of the planet?
A “quick end to the fossil fuel economy” espoused by Mr. Ehrlich and Pope Frances, with green energy production still facing problems of scale and reliability, would only worsen worldwide poverty. We need a well thought out and well-argued strategy for carbon reduction, not more alarmist predictions and blame shifting.
Michael Freeman, Sanger
This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Ehrlich’s predictions are lame."