The Population Bomb

 

During high school I read a book that directly impacted my life. An assignment in my American Problems class was to read a book and then report on a problem.  I was assigned the problem: Overpopulation. The book I read was The Population Bomb by Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich, the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of Stanford University and President of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology.

The Population Bomb predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. The concern then was that a population bomb would tip the world into famine and chaos. 

My report focused on the “What Needs to be Done” section of the book. The most memorable items suggested were:

• Income Tax Reversal – an additional amount per child would be added to a family’s taxable income from which taxes are calculated (vs. a tax deduction per child). This is to pay for the resources they use.
• Luxury Taxes – placed on baby items (cribs, diapers, etc.) and toys.
• Incentives – bonuses paid for …

using birth control;
postponing marriage until couples are both over the age of 25;
every 5 years of marriage without the birth of children;
voluntary vasectomy after having 2 children.

• Sex Education – expand the “birds & bees” curriculum to include the fact that reproduction is but one function of sex and one that can be controlled.

Our class discussion of these ideas, was, to say the least, very spirited!

Most notably, for me, was the author’s answer to the question, “What can I do to help?” His response, “Set an example – don’t have more than two children.”  As a high school student, I took that response to heart. After reading this book, I decided that if I ever had children, I would only have two – which I eventually did!

The book was criticized at the time for painting an overly dark picture of the future. As I reread it now, I would agree, it is not an optimistic book. But while not all of the Ehrlich’s dire predictions have come to pass, the world’s population has doubled since then, from 3.8 billion to 7.6 billion. And Ehrlich was right about one thing: The world’s population has continued to expand, straining the planet’s resources and heating up our climate. 

And yet, despite Ehrlich’s predictions, no devastating famine threatening humanity’s existence ever ensued. The reason is straightforward. Food production increased faster than the population. Today, the average person is healthier, wealthier and better fed than in 1968. Infant mortality has declined. Life expectancy has increased. Ironically, both Japan and Europe do have a population problem. But the problem is not the threat of famine due to too many mouths to feed. It’s that women are having too few children to maintain current population levels.

The first time I read The Population Bomb I was a young woman focused on how my life would be impacted. Now that I am past childbearing age, my rereading focused on how our world and its inhabitants are being impacted by the environmental problems outlined in the book. The book was the same, but my experience was different.

While Dr. Ehrlich’s forecasts of famine due to population growth did not come true, his book has left an unanswered question that is still with us today: How can the Earth continue to support an ever-increasing number of humans?