Quote without (much) comment

[Paul Cherubini]

Ron Gatrelle wrote:

> What do I think of Ehrlich's statements?
> He doesn't know what he is talking about - just like his
> semipseudopredictions that  civilization should have entered chaos 15-20
> years ago..

Ehrlich's doomsayer books also earned him half a million dollars
in academic awards (see below):

In The Population Bomb (1968; revised,1971), and in 
subsequent books Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich predicted:

 "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and
1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite
of any crash programs embarked upon now. . America's vast
agricultural surpluses are gone."

 "a minimum of ten million people, most of them children,
will starve to death during each year of the 1970s. But this is a
mere handful compared to the numbers that will be starving
before the end of the century"

- America in 1984 would havefood shortages so severe that steak
would be $12 a pound, the U.S. unemployment rate would be 27
percent, and India would be an anarchy because of nationwide
food riots.

"Smog disasters" in 1973 might kill 200,000 people in
New York and Los Angeles."

"I would take even money that England will not exist in the
year 2000."

"Before 1985, mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity .
in which the accessible supplies of 13 key minerals will be
facing depletion."

Have Ehrlich's preposterous predictions hurt his reputation?
Far from it - they've made him both celebrated and rich.

In 1993 Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical
Garden presented Ehrlich with the The World Ecology Award

 In  1990 Ehrlich published a sequel to "Bomb" called
"The Population Explosion,"and  received the MacArthur
Foundation's  famous "genius award" with a $345,000 check,
and split a Swedish Royal Academy of Science prize
worth $120,000.

Paul Cherubini

 
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