[November 29, 2024] In the 1960s, there was a popular idea circulating in academia that the world’s population growth was rapidly exceeding its environmental and technical limits to support itself. The results would be widespread starvation, affecting mostly children in poor nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of southwest Asia. Ideas behind this thinking started in the aftermath of the Great Chinese Famine occurring between 1959 and 1961 (the deadliest famine in modern history). A global famine would be the result of unregulated population growth, eventually ending in apocalyptic starvation as the world population crashes, killing billions. A book came out, congealing these ideas, and it quickly grasped the attention of American and European thinkers. The book was called, quite prophetically, “The Population Bomb.” Implied in the book’s title was that eventually, the world’s population would crash, not unlike algae in a petri dish that consumes all the nutrients.
The Population Bomb: Population Control or Race to Oblivion? by
Reading List: The Population Bomb
Paul R. Erlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, 1968.
The book’s authors predicted worldwide famines due to overpopulation and advocated for immediate and strong governmental action to limit human population growth. Today, many believe these predictions are wrong, but the authors stand by their conclusions. Paul Erlich said in 2009 that “perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that it was much too optimistic about the future.” Of course, as we know from hindsight, a worldwide famine never occurred, but regional famines on a small scale did happen. The authors convincingly argued that as the current population was growing rapidly, it was unreasonable to expect sufficient improvements in food production to feed everyone. The book was required reading in High School, and I can attest to the fact that we believed these arguments wholeheartedly. My biology teacher was fearful of our future and even suggested we might not have children so as to “help the world.”
The Erlichs emphasized that the population bomb was not limited to humans only but affected other animal species. Much of the book describes the state of the environment and food security, which they describe as increasingly dire. “What needs to be done?” they wrote. “We must rapidly bring the world population under control, reducing the growth rate to zero or making it negative. Conscious regulation of human numbers must be achieved. Simultaneously, we must, at least temporarily, greatly increase our food production.” It should be noted that this philosophy of environmental sustainability remains a core belief in many academic circles today.
The book is a fairly easy read, and the arguments are well-researched. However, I would suggest that you take it as just one view and that many of the core policy recommendations in this book run counter to the tenets of democracy. It is highly recommended as background information.
Over the next few days, I’ll use the idea of unregulated population growth causing a global collapse as the starting point for current governmental policies that will run headlong into democratic principles. I’ll show that the population bomb as described in this book never happened, and our food supplies continue to outpace our needs. Additionally, the world now faces another huge problem: population decline.
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- “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
- “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
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Side Note: Please remember and take a look at Tom Copeland’s reading blog. His website, which I highly recommend, can be found here: https://militaryreadinglists.com/map
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“The Population Bomb” is a must read for those interested in the early days of eco-environmentalism. It was ahead of its time for most individuals to understand. We are still told by environmentalists that a cataclysmic Armageddon is imminent. This time because of global climate change. The environmental activists have found a new boogieman to scare us with.
Oldie book, but still a goodie. If you want some background material on population growth, this is required reading. Otherwise, I’d avoid it. I still have my original paperback book that I bought while attending my first year at Michigan State University.
Right Mr. Asper. This book is an interesting book, mostly for someone who wants to know more about the early days of the environmental movement and good care for our environment. The book points to what we could call “collective suicide” because we are growing our families too big. Turn# out this is wrong. Go figure.
Right. I still have an old paperback copy. Time to get it out and flip thru these old pages again. 😎
Very nice! A book from the past. It was a bestseller and it provided us with a story of mass starvation of humans. Note that this was also the decade of Hollywood blockbuster movies of catastrophic events. The Ehrluchs advocated for immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a population bomb were already present like Gen. Satterfield points out in this article. This book brought those fears to an even wider audience. The book was criticized for its alarmist tone, and recently for its inaccurate conclusions. The Erlichs stand by their basic ideas in the book since they alerted folks to the importance of environmental issues and brought human numbers into the debate on the human future. I would conclude that this book is one of the most controversial eco-books ever. But what the book brought to the public’s attention was demographics do play an important role in the study of people.
I used to require this book in my High School classes but took it out when I finally realized that it was not accurate. At least inaccurate in its basic assumptions which are too oversimplified and maybe that’s part of its popularity, simple and too easy. The arguments in the book are well written.
Thanks Gen. Satterfield, good but oldie book.
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Gotta love the READING LIST.
I do but unfortunately Gen. Satterfield has ‘paused’ the feature for now.
Thanks, Gen. Satterfield, I thought it was about time you did another book review. This one an older book which was very influential at the time. “The Population Bomb” 🌎
Yeah, I remember reading this in my Demography 101 class in community college. We too thought it was prophetic by predicting a sudden, massive population crash caused by the failure to grow and transport enough food and energy. Some parts of the world would suffer more than others. Even America would see its population decline in the scenario the book’s authors predicted. Yep, easy to read and understand. It fit nicely the environmental movement’s thinking at the time, plus all the college campus activists, led to the perfect storm to accept the conclusions as gospel.
KenF, those of us old enough to remember those days, wouldn’t want to go back there. Too much “anti-capitalist “ garbage as being the cause. The problem was nobody could come up with any better alternative solution to living a better life. Now we know better. And now the world is about to experience a population decline.
he he he he he …LOL. I too remember those times, and not so fondly. ✌️peace!
CRAZY DUDE