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https://theconversation.com/paul-ehrlich-often-called-alarmist-for-dire-warnings-about-human-harms-to-the-earth-believed-scientists-had-a-responsibility-to-speak-out-178492>
"Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich, who died March 13, 2026, in Palo
Alto, California, was a scientific crusader whose dire predictions about
population growth, world hunger and environmental collapse made headlines and
sparked controversy for decades.
Sometimes called a “prophet of doom” by his detractors, Ehrlich was among the
most public figures of the environmental movement. He was admired and often
honored for his prophetic warnings. But he was also excoriated when his worst
predictions failed to come true.
Ehrlich founded Stanford’s Center for Nature and Society in 1984 and wrote more
than 40 books and over 1,100 scientific articles on ecology, the environment
and population dynamics. He is best known outside of academia for writing “The
Population Bomb” in 1968, along with his wife, conservation biologist Anne H.
Erhlich, who survives him.
The book became a bestseller that was reprinted more than 20 times and
translated into multiple languages. It starkly predicted that population growth
would exhaust Earth’s resources, leading to wars and social collapse.
Ultimately, the book both popularized and polarized the U.S. environmental
movement.
As a scholar of communications and environmental history, I see Ehrlich’s
difficult fight for the environment as emblematic of the vast chasm between
science on one side and political culture influenced by the mass media on the
other side.
And I see Ehrlich’s passing – along with others of his generation, such as Carl
Sagan, E.O. Wilson and Jane Goodall – as a loss for a world that needs
visionaries and public scientists now more than ever. Public understanding of
science and technology is critical for political discussion, for environmental
preservation and, in the words of British physical chemist C.P. Snow, for the
sake of “the poor who needn’t be poor if there is intelligence in the world.”"
RIP,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
