Everything about Paul R Ehrlich totally explained
Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born
May 29 1932 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a renowned
entomologist specializing in
Lepidoptera (butterflies). He is also well known as a researcher and author on the subject of human
overpopulation, notably for his 1968 book
The Population Bomb, and is Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at
Stanford University.
Life and career
Education and academic career
Ehrlich earned a B.A. in
zoology in
1953 at the
University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in 1955 at the
University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in 1957 at the University of Kansas, under the prominent
bee researcher
C.D. Michener. During his studies he participated in surveys of
insects on the
Bering Sea and in the
Canadian Arctic, and then on a
National Institutes of Health fellowship, investigated the genetics and behavior of parasitic mites. In 1959 he joined the faculty at Stanford, being promoted to full professor of
biology in 1966. He was named to the Bing Professorship in 1977.
Ehrlich currently is the president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. He is a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the
American Philosophical Society.
Ehrlich's research group at Stanford currently works extensively on the study of natural populations of checkerspot
butterflies (
Euphydryas). Along with Dr.
Gretchen Daily, he's conducted work in "
countryside biogeography", or the study of making human-disturbed areas hospitable to
biodiversity. Ehrlich continues to conduct policy research on population and resource issues, focusing especially on
endangered species,
cultural evolution,
environmental ethics, and the preservation of
genetic resources.
Marriage and family
On
December 18 1954, Paul Ehrlich married
Anne Fitzhugh Howland, a research assistant. They remain married and have one child, Lisa Marie.
Other activities
Ehrlich was one of the founders of the group
Zero Population Growth in 1968, along with
Richard Bowers and
Charles Remington. He and his wife Anne were on the board of advisors of the
Federation for American Immigration Reform until 2003.
With
Stephen Schneider and two other authors, writing in the January 2002 issue of
Scientific American, he critiqued
Bjørn Lomborg's
The Skeptical Environmentalist.
Population growth predictions
Ehrlich wrote an article that appeared in
New Scientist in December 1967. In that article, Ehrlich predicted that the world would experience famines sometime between 1970 and 1985 due to population growth outstripping resources. Ehrlich wrote 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." Ehrlich also stated, "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980," and "I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks that India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971." These specific predictions didn't actually come to pass, and his later book
The Population Explosion is much more cautious in its predictions.
The article led to a book (
The Population Bomb), the founding of Population Connection|Zero Population Growth, a vigorous policy debate, and both widespread support and criticism of Ehrlich.
Dr. Ehrlich reviewed the predictions in his book
The Population Bomb in a 2004 interview and the subsequent criticism that followed due to the specificity of the dates in his predictions. He stated that some of his predictions didn't occur, but noted that it was still “horrific” that 600 million people were very hungry and billions under-nourished or malnourished. He stated that his predictions about disease and climate change were correct. Famine was defined as "a condition of populations in which a substantial increase in deaths is associated with inadequate food consumption".
Other academic authors have echoed Dr. Ehrlich’s concerns about overpopulation.
Professor
Jared Diamond has argued that population growth and overusing natural resources lead to social collapse. Professor Diamond predicts that these combined factors create an environmental time bomb with an estimated fuse of 50 years, after which he speculates the situation will be resolved one way or another.
On the other hand, Professor Ehrlich and his wife Anne have been praised for raising awareness of environmental matters and for bringing to public awareness issues regarding population, resources and environment, as well as making ecology a household word.
Writings
Ehrlich has written numerous books on the subjects of ecology, entomology, overpopulation, and related subjects. His best known book is
The Population Bomb, published in 1968.
- How to Know the Butterflies (1960)
- Process of Evolution (1963)
- The Population Bomb (1968)
- Population, Resources, Environments: Issues in Human Ecology (1970)
- How to Be a Survivor (1971)
- Man and the Ecosphere: Readings from Scientific American (1971)
- Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions (1973)
- Introductory Biology (1973)
- The End of Affluence (1975)
- Biology and Society (1976)
- Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment (1978)
- The Race Bomb (1978)
- Extinction (1981)
- The Golden Door: International Migration, Mexico, and the United States (1981)
- The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War (1984, co-authored with Carl Sagan, Donald Kennedy, and Walter Orr Roberts)
- Earth (1987, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich)
- Science of Ecology (1987, co-authored with Joan Roughgarden)
- The Cassandra Conference: Resources and the Human Predicament (1988)
- The Birder's Handbook: A field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds (1988, co-aurhored with David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye)
- The Population Explosion (1990, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich)
- Healing the Planet: Strategies for Resolving the Environmental Crisis (1991, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich)
- Birds in Jeopardy: The Imperiled and Extinct Birds of the United States and Canada, Including Hawaii and Puerto Rico (1992, co-authored with David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye)
- The Stork and the Plow : The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma (1995, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich and Gretchen C. Daily)
- A World of Wounds: Ecologists and the Human Dilemma (1997)
- Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environment Rhetoric Threatens Our Future (1998, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich)
- Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect (2002)
- One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future (2004, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich)
- On the Wings of Checkerspots: A Model System for Population Biology (2004, edited volume, co-edited with Ilkka Hanski)
- New World, New Mind
: Moving Towards Conscious Evolution (1988, co-authored with Robert Ornstein)
Awards
Ehrlich has been recognized for his work with the following awards:
The John Muir Award of the Sierra Club
The Gold Medal Award of the World Wildlife Fund International
A MacArthur Prize Fellowship
The Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
ECI Prize winner in terrestrial ecology, 1993
A World Ecology Award from the International Center for Tropical Ecology, University of Missouri, 1993
The Volvo Environmental Prize, 1993
The United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize, 1994
The Heinz Award for the Environment, 1995
The Albert Einstein Club Commemorative Plaque, 1997
The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, 1998
The Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, 1998
The Blue Planet Prize, 1999
The Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America, 2001
The Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2001Further Information
Get more info on 'Paul R Ehrlich'.
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