Paul Ehrlich Sounds a Bit Unhinged This Week Gail Heriot

Here's a recent open letter from progressive icon Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University, author of the Population Bomb and frequent commentator on global warming, racism and sexism.  Somehow it wound up in my mailbox.  Apparently, he is concerned that the public has not yet swallowed his progressive agenda whole and has decided that "rapid modification"  of "human behavior" is necessary.  Am I the only one who think this guy sounds a bit unhinged?

Dear Friends--

There is growing consensus among environmental scientists that the scholarly community has adequately detailed how to deal with the major issues of the human predicament caused by our success as a species – climate disruption, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, toxification of the planet, the deterioration of the epidemiological environment, the potential impacts of nuclear war, racism, sexism, economic inequity, and on and on. I and my colleagues believe humanity must take rapid steps to ameliorate them. But, in essence, nothing serious is being done – as exemplified by the “much talk and no action” on climate change. The central problem is clearly not a need for more natural science (although in many areas it would be very helpful) but rather a need for better understanding of human behaviors and how they can be altered to direct humanity toward a sustainable society before it is too late.

That’s why a group of natural scientists, social scientists, and scholars from the humanities decided to inaugurate a Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB — pronounced “mob”). It was so named to emphasize that it is human behavior, toward one another and toward the planet that sustains all of us, that requires rapid modification. The idea is that the MAHB ... would  ... serve as a major tool for promoting conscious cultural evolution.

Translation:  Ehrlich has all the answers, including the answers to our problems with nuclear war, racism, sexism and economic inequity, but he hasn't yet devised a way to shove it down our throats. 

I'm not sure this letter would have caught my eye in ordinary times.  Ehrlich is just one guy--and an odd one at that.  But these days Democratic Party leaders are sounding a lot like him.  They all seem to think that the fault lies with the public.  If Americans don't want health care "reform" it's because they are an unruly racist mob.  Ditto for opponents to cap and trade.  Just ask Nancy Pelosi, Jimmy Carter and a long list of Democrats. 

Of course, one reason the public hasn't bought into Ehrlich's agenda is that he has a remarkably bad track record.  Many will recall his famously off-target forecast in 1967 that "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."  It's important to also remember his proposed remedy for the overpopulation problem.  Ehrlich advocated "compulsory birth regulation" of a kind that even the most totalitarian government would surely have shrunk from.  China didn't come close.

The letter goes on to propose a global "megaconference" in 2011.   Lots of cool people from around the world ... a really nice hotel in a really nice place.  Rio de Janeiro maybe.  Or Paris.  All the best minds.  Lots of Powerpoint presentations.  

I guess the compulsory birth regulation ... or whatever these nice scientists decide is best for us ... will come later.  We'll just have to stay tuned.

Comments

[Lou Gots]

Imposition of a regime anything like what Ehrlich says is necessary would require power beyond the dreams of Stalin or Caligula. Resistance could only be overcome by total force and total terror. Thus this washed-up fanatic has to be either a hypocrit or a monster, or perhaps both.he

[krome]

I wonder how much carbon would be emmitted by this megacongerence (and the private jets flying to it, etc.).

[saebeorhty]

likely comment extinction prepared increased browsers society

[albertinas]

home understanding http://ideas.repec.org http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

[keciaschwa]

estimated weathering variation permafrost economists individual imposed continue

[Michael F. Martin]

-- pronounced "mob" --

This on'e just to deer-in-the-headlights to be worth the wise crack.

[T.W. Day]

Nothing like a simpleminded "translation" to turn a reasonable premise into hyperbole. Ehrich has always had a moral drive to protect the lives of his children and grandchildren, something that the wingnuts seem to be without. If worrying about the future of the next generation sounds Stalinist to you, I suspect you are a wad more selfish than is sane, healthy, or intelligent.

[The B Girl]

Ehrlich's method of "protect[ing] the lives of his children and grandchildren" has been to make sure that other people don't have any. If overpopulation had been a real threat to humankind, I might have had some sympathy for him, but strangely underpopulation seems to be the great danger now. I'll be working till I'm 80 to ensure Baby Boomers get their Social Security payments on time.

[generic viagra]

I am a freshman in high school. I have a 4.0 GPA and I play football. I am in the Chinese Club which I am quite involved in and I am also in a club called California Scholarship Federation or CSF. I am half Chinese and half White. I can't afford Stanford so I would have to get a scholarship. Can I possibly get in?