Cut world population and redistribute resources, expert urges (Says Stanford Prof. Paul Ehrlich)

The Guardian ^ | 04/26/2012 | John Vidal

[SeekAndFind]

The world's most renowned population analyst has called for a massive reduction in the number of humans and for natural resources to be redistributed from the rich to the poor.

Paul Ehrlich, Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University in California and author of the best-selling Population Bomb book in 1968, goes much further than the Royal Society in London which this morning said that physical numbers were as important as the amount of natural resources consumed.

The optimum population of Earth – enough to guarantee the minimal physical ingredients of a decent life to everyone – was 1.5 to 2 billion people rather than the 7 billion who are alive today or the 9 billion expected in 2050, said Ehrlich in an interview with the Guardian.

"How many you support depends on lifestyles. We came up with 1.5 to 2 billion because you can have big active cities and wilderness. If you want a battery chicken world where everyone has minimum space and food and everyone is kept just about alive you might be able to support in the long term about 4 or 5 billion people. But you already have 7 billion. So we have to humanely and as rapidly as possible move to population shrinkage."

[Buckeye McFrog]

Paul Ehrlich: Getting Everything Wrong Since 1968, yet it does not stop him from getting tenure at Stanford and honorariums at dozens of other major universities.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I thought Paul Ehrlich had died. How old is he? 120?

The man was born in 1932, which makes him 80 this year. He wrote his scare mongering book -— THE POPULATION BOMB when he was in his mid 30’s.

[the_daug]

And God said Gen 9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The single best way to curb world population growth, would be to end all immigration to Europe, N. America, and Australia. Without immigration, the populations in those areas would be shrinking. Meanwhile, the populations in 3rd world countries are exploding. Immigration to 1st world countries provides a safety valve for the growing populations in the 3rd world. Without that safety valve, 3rd world nations would have to face up to their population problems, rather than dumping them on the 1st world nations.

It's always struck me as insane that 1st world “progressives” are in favour of reduced populations, and using immigration to increase populations. The same people hold these conflicting views. At the same time. They also hold the view that they are enlightened.

[chris_bdba]

Sure let’s start with the Islamic countries and Africa first....oh that isn’t the idea huh just white populations?

[theBuckwheat]

It is important for people to be able to refute such dangerous nonsense, and one of the primary tools is Austrian Economics and understanding the blessings of liberty. It is also essential to understand why socialism and collectivism is dangerous to liberty and prosperity, for you will not have to scratch Ehrlic’s skin very deep before you see the deep red color of a person willing to see people dead in on order to implement what he advocates. Such people have the blood of millions of Chinese second children on their hands.

[familyop]

That policy is already being carried out here. What else is new?

[paudio]

Didn’t Ehrlich lose bet to Julian Simon about this? Now that Simon is dead, Ehrlich tries to propose Population Bomb II ?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Let’s start by cutting his life and redistributing his stuff.

[ROTB]

If he really believes what he’s saying, he’d set a good example by snuffing himself first.

***

“In chess, you let the PAWNS go first!!”
- Magneto

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ehrlich is still around ?

[SeekAndFind]

Well, we could ask the same question of Jimmy Carter...

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Didn’t Ehrlich lose bet to Julian Simon about this?

See Post #14 above.

[Wicket]

Dang, just when the government is trying to eliminate the term lunatic from regulations.

[Stevenc131]

Population control was real big with liberals in the 50s and 60s. As soon as it became apparent that the 3rd world countries were the source of almost all the real population growth, you suddenly didn’t hear much about it anymore. The idea that a non-white, non-Western group of individuals could possibly be source of any problem was view as racist, and liberals immediately move the issue to the back burner.

A few years back the Sierra Club started talkng again about the need to limit the population of the U.S., but when they discovered that a major source of the population growth was latin immigrants (and illegal immigrants at that), they dropped the issue like a hot potato. This issue just isn’t going anywhere unless liberals can find a way to blame the problem on the Western nations.

[kalee]

And who decides which people are unnecessary?

[ArrogantBustard]

Dear Paul,

Please ... demonstrate your dedication to the cause.

Drink hemlock.

Sincerely,

-A. Bustard

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ehrlich was Jimmah Cahtah before Jimmah.

[grundle]

Ehrlich still refuses to admit that he was wrong:

Also, his obsession with "natural resources" is ridiculous. North Korea and South Korea have the same natural resources. The real reason that South Korea is rich while North Korea has famine is because of their differing legal, economic, political, and social systems and institutions.

[mjp]

a massive reduction in the number of humans and for natural resources to be redistributed from the rich to the poor.

Libtard anti-man, anti-reason mentality. The supply of natural resources that are economically available for human use are a product of human reason and its product, knowledge and its corollary, capital accumulation.A policy of seizing the wealth of capitalists, to improve the consumption of the masses, is actually a policy of capital decumulation, which must destroy the foundations of the productivity of labor and thus real wages and the standard of living of the average wage earner.