Doomsayer Paul Ehrlich Strikes (Out) Again
Michael Fumento
Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute
For three decades now, [Paul] Ehrlich, a butterfly specialist, has made an incredibly successful career out of being incredibly wrong on some of the most important matters of the day. He began his spectacular doomsaying career back in 1968 with his best-selling book “The Population Bomb.” Among his predictions then and since:
- “The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines hundreds of millions of people [including Americans] are going to starve to death.” (1968)
- “Smog disasters” in 1973 might kill 200,000 people in New York and Los Angeles. (1969)
- “I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.” (1969)
- “Before 1985 mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity . . . in which the accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion.” (1976)
Technology has always thwarted Ehrlich’s predictions, and you needn’t be Nostradamus to know it always will. But Ehrlich will continue to garner accolades because while in reality he’s always wrong, politically he’s always correct.
But if he tells you it’s going to be sunny and dry today better bring an umbrella.