From the Population Bomb to the Dominant Animal

[FinsTnioli]

Professor Ehrlich, your expertise in some elements of AEC/AGW is outstanding. On the other hand, you lack understanding of some very important, already well known and highly relevant to the AEC/AGW facts (or understanding how these are relevant to AEC/AGW, perhaps?). I dare to propose to you to search for such facts, using very "broad" search around most various sciences, not digging much into details.

Overall, excellent lecture. Thank you!

P.S. AEC is "anthropogenic environmental crisis".

[tiggerny88]

i don't remember who said this but the quote is "the ideal human population of planet earth is 150 million"

i agree

[mycatisromeo]

Every human and environmental problem is traced back to overpopulation. Even when Europe was seeking America, it was for more room to grow and more commodities to extract. Adding more people now will only create a growing level of poverty among all nations. And the more poverty there is, the more the poor rely on the system and have more children - it's a positive feedback loop. I swear I'm not human - they're all purely insane.

[RayDandy]

@mycatisromeo Very true !

[gukakmakuk]

What is the use of having so many fucking people in the world? with our lifestyle it is absolutely impossible to have a clean environment."Sustainable growth" in a limited planet is acontradiction in terms. Sustainable stability can be reached with two billion people on earth ,at the most, not what we have today .

[mycatisromeo]

Respond to this video... One way to change cultural evolution to benefit the future - socially engineer people NOT to have children. How? Governments pay all young boys $5000 if they volunteer to get a vasectomy. Tell me one young boy who wouldn't jump at that offer! Take the ability for women to have children and put it into the hands of men. The population would reduce very fast. However, Govt. wants the population to grow because it grows the economy.

[mycatisromeo]

Respond to this video...  He does have a dark sense of humor.

[mycatisromeo]

@acavideo Hoarding wealth means keeping lower social status humans in poverty as slaves to the system. Hoarding wealth is nothing more than controlling other people's status and resources - and it also means murder, since some of that wealth could be used to help people live.

[IconsOfTeleplay]

Malthusian-engineered shortages of food, water, medicine, fuel & materiel (as well as perpetual war) will serve their common goal of reducing the Earth's population of 6,500 million to 500 million (as prescribed in granite on the Georgia Guide Stones). 

[rastamasta91]

What a joke: he was too optimistic? What about the starvation of hundreds of millions that never occurred? He basically thought that the age of civilization was ending, and yet he was "too optimistic" because he didn't know about climate change? He's such a propgandist that he loses all credibility, even if there might be some truth in what he says.

[numbnuts234567]

After twenty minutes of listening to this guy I realized that I had just wasted twenty minutes of my life.

[questscience1]

what is wrong with living in a hut? Nothing man can do can ever out do nature and the most important people around you are what makes life so special, and helping others. So, what is wrong with a simple life? nothing. imho

[ciaoricardo]

@questscience1 A hut is not civilized. If you want to live in a hut, by all means, let the rest of us live in comfort.

[AgonyInCrisis]

Throughout the 1980's corporate news agencies whined of the disasters that nature would inflict upon us in retribution for assaults against her. By the year A.D. 2000 Manhattan & Bangladesh would be reclaimed by the ocean; food shortages and lengthy rolling power brown-outs & black-outs would become a way of life. Perhaps witch doctor Paul Ehrlich's published predictions of famine & pestilence will be visited upon the Western World by 2025?

[AgonyInCrisis]

Elitism = death to self-sovereignty, redress of grievances against the govt., & free speech. Atheism {sans quotes} is the religion of the animal world as animals don't contemplate the Heavens nor wage planetary war.

[gergenheimer]

Stanford should be embarrassed by this hack - wrong on population explosion, wrong on ozone depletion, wrong on global cooling, wrong on ocean extinction - and now global warming - how many times does he get a pass before people stop listening?

[spactick]

@gergenheimer Wrong? Hack? oh really? he might just be off in his numbers(dates, specifics), but to say he's wrong is stupid. you might check into the lectures of Albert Bartlett. Erhlich is absolutely right 100%. just give his warnings time. And then you'll be calling him a prophet.

[gergenheimer]

@spactick most of these predictions were made 30+ years ago and Ehrlich was warning that the dangers were on our doorstep. Ehrlich himself gave the timetables for his wild guesses, and he was wildly wrong. Just admit that this charlatan has an agenda that isn't based on scientific inquiry. He hates Western civilization, free markets and humanity in general.

[spactick]

@gergenheimer So what would you say is a healthy population for planet earth? 10 billion? 50 billion? 100 billion? He may have been premature is his appraisals, but I don't think the basic premise is wrong. I'm glad that his estimates and predictions have been "off", because is he would have been 100% right? we'd be living in a nightmarish age. But I don't think his basic ideas are wrong . He's voicing his concerns that he sees "potentially" coming. What's wrong with that?

[gergenheimer]

@spactick I don't know the "correct" population of the Earth, and clearly, neither does Ehrlich. Good science is supposed to have explanatory and predictive value, as well as be testable / disprovable. Ehrlich's claims fail all of these criteria. Doomsayers like Ehrlich have been saying for centuries that we faced imminent starvation and resource depletion even when human population was 1% of what it is now. These people ignore humanity's creativity and adaptability to changing conditions.

[gergenheimer]

@spactick What's wrong with Ehrlich voicing his concerns is, if they are based on mere speculation (and it seems clear to me that they are), and society radically restructures itself based on his' (and others') whims, then we will have wasted time, effort, resources and wealth for no reason, other than the pessimistic fear that "something bad" COULD happen.

[spactick]

@gergenheimer I live here in San Francisco,CA. which lies directly over the San Andreas Fault. I don't know if you've heard of the earthquake fault? but it's shifting in 1906 caused the Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Are you familiar with that? I hope so. It was all the papers. It was big news. (just joking) There is a school of thought here in SF where people frankly don't care a whim about the fact that someday (when who knows) we're going to experience once again a major earthquake. cont.

[spactick]

@gergenheimer cont. They do absolutely nothing to prepare for it. They've not retro-fitted their foundations on their houses. They've not replaced the old "brick" foundations. They've not added shear-wall (I'm in construction)

They've done ZERO to protect themselves because they think it's never going to happen. Oh really? On the other hand you have people like myself who have replaced their foundations. Who've retro-fitted their foundations. Who've added shear-wall etc; etc;. Why? cont.

[spactick]

@gergenheimer cont. because I think it's better to cautious and prepared, rather than whistle past the grave yard. But that's my way of dealing with things. And I think that's the way Mr. Ehrlich deals with things. Why not be cautionary? Because once you reach the point of extreme over population? What then, if for example we run out of oil (whiich is going to happen). What if the next Ice Age comes upon us over a period of say a decade or less.(which is going to happen). Billions will die.

[gergenheimer]

@spactick Caution is fine, but you need to understand that perfect safety comes at huge costs, both economic and social. Assuming Ehrlich's dire scenarios of global warming and "overpopulation" are both true, to stem the emissions and stop AGW, we would need to reduce our agricultural and industrial output to medieval levels or less - which would, in turn result in the starvation of millions, even billions. As for oil, "experts" have been predicting the end of oil since the late 1800's.

[pronatalist]

@acavideo

Ehrlich opposed choice, in his book, The Population Bomb. Radical pop phobics foolishly oppose individual liberty and responsibility, in their opposition to the natural increase of humanity. He called family planning a huge failure, because while giving individuals choice of family size, society is denied any choice. One family may have 3 children, another 7. Both add to the growing pop. Rather, I would cite that as good reason to embrace pop growth,since parents are growing us denser

[pronatalist]

@acavideo

I don't know who procommenter is, I have always used the username pronatalist here.

So I'm one of those "mindless growth-apologists" eh?

The unbelieving rebellious world tells lies, and seeks to rob people of their blessings, saying "Use birth control! Use b.c.!" (and pay no mind to those nasty side effects that pollute the body directly?) They say we should be obliged to use "protection," or the world will grow too dense

NO, by growing denser naturally, we can avoid birth control!

[procommenter]

@acavideo

Lead the way to population-reduction. You're taking up space, consuming electricity & harming Mother Earth.

[procommenter]

@acavideo : Population-control begins with you. Consider your options: suicide, etc.

There's enough of Ehrlich's quote to demonstrate his eugenics' bend.

[SEElovEverywhere]

i heard Dr. Ehrlich back in 1970 while in college, it made me a committed environmentalist, great to hear him again, i will share with all my connections.

[Causa10bserver]

I'll bet Ehrlich bought a generator to prepare for the Y2K bug and is right now researching fo find out just how the world is going to end in 2012.

[Eldeecue]

The word "progaganda" appears to have become hipster slang for "truth of an ugly nature"....I simply cant' believe from these comments that my fellow humans are that fucking stupid.

We're overpopulated, dangerously so. Disagree with everything else the man has to say if you like: fine. We need to stop having kids. Delude yourself that climate change isn't real...fine, good; just stop having kids. Hate on his tie if you like.

Condoms. Birth Control. Stop killing our race.

[TheNokAz]

This is not a matter of human evolution but of nurture vs nature, if these people were to have equal food and education as north americans their IQ level would rise in future generations. Have you seen the movie idiocracy, its a dark comedy about how the stupid people populate the world because they breed like crazy, its kinda what ur talking about if u havent seen it haha

[Eldeecue]

People who help prevent disasters are often demonized for some reason. If Bill Clinton had taken steps to up airport security, and thus, prevented 9/11, we'd hate him for making air travel so inconvenient.

[mazzer123]

this propoganda is evil.

[glorp896]

overpopulation is MORE EVIL

[TheNokAz]

We have ENOUGH resouces to feed everyone in the world equally based on a

2nd class country, but im sure as a western society we would not would give up anything for equality. Africa is POOR and HUNGRY because of our corporations and the want for money. We let food rot instead giving it to countries in need so the price of it does not descrease on the world market.

[glorp896]

africa is poor and hungry because the people are stupid and inferior - corporations have done FAR more to help than harm them... they'd all be living in mud huts or something if it wasn't for white euro invention and international trade and finance...

"eat all your food on your plate because there are starving kids in africa?... an old silly thing your parents tell you?

[TheNokAz]

Explain to me how Foriegn CORPORATIONS HAVE DONE GOOD FOR AFRICA!? Example, multinaitonal Oil corporations in Nigeria, if you seriously believe that they produce money for that specific country, i don't even know what to say to you. Yes the white people brought in technology to the third world but they consume their rich natural resources, the WORLD BANK is garbage they offer developing countries money but add such a HIGH interest rate that it creates a greater debt for that specific country.

[glorp896]

its relative, relative to their countries of origin they have not given africans a fair shake, but relative to WHAT AFRICANS WOULD HAVE HAD ALONE, they are WAY AHEAD

400 billion, last count i saw, is GONE in nigeria, their transparency is nil, their corruption beats ALL other african countries, due to being the richest in mineral resources other than south africa, and number one in oil.

without white people consumption of africa's natural resources they would be alone, dark continent indeed

[TheNokAz]

Yes, Africa would be a dark continent if the white people did not invade, but that still does not justify the pillaging of Africa's resources, African give more than they recieve to developed countries, this number is in the biliions, I don't have the canadian government publication with me right now to give you an exact number

[glorp896]

pillaging?, again, i'd ask you what percent do you think you deserve if were like old jed with his blood hound shooting in the woods and some bubbly crude came to the surface... what do you think you deserve for EXXON setting up shop on your property to utilize this resource? what would south africans do with gold, diamonds, etc... things that at their level are meaningless to their survival but create jobs other than subsistence farming... do we send charity money to africa or the reverse?

[TheNokAz]

My previous question was directed towards future generations on the present, let me rephrase "If these people were given a standard education, along with proper nutrients, would not the IQ increase over TIME, as in future generations through reproduction, I understand your point of an increase 5 IQ points in a 'one's' lifetime, my question was directed toward the future generations.

[glorp896]

its actually believed that africans are dropping behind whites/asians, even with the same conditions they do NOT catch up... the catch up is limited and only relative to their own group... 90 IQ is right around the world average, many african countries are around 70... whites around 100, hispanics below and east asians over 100... jews are supreme, especially ashkenazi jews, 112-117 average IQ, only the japs come close with averages i've seen at least 105 and over 110...

[Causa10bserver]

@glorp896 "90 IQ is right around the world's average" lol, do you enjoy making stuff up or do you just believe and quote people who talk out the wrong end of their torso? When IQ scores are tabulated for any group they use a bell curve where 100 is ALWAYS at the top of the curve with half the population scoring below and half scoring above. Since you're likely on the left side of the curve i'll put it plainly. 100 is always the average for any group.

[glorp896]

@Causa no, thats from VDARE, look it up dummy - how could you know i made that up? 100 is the usual misconception... do you think they tested the whole world and came up with a nice round 100, or do you think they had a built in arbitrary scale of 100 being average BEFORE they had a good global testing... duh? think a little you IQ genius you... blacks are way below 100, 100 is NOT always the average you moron (for any group?!, god thats stupid... ARTHUR JENSEN, look him up, or richard lynn

[glorp896]

@glorp

google "Richard Lynn - Home", then click on article, then INTELLIGENCE AND WEALTH..., then you can download the PDF proving your logically absurd and quite impossible idea of universal IQ average equality... typical PC equalizer liberal lie...

[glorp896]

@Causa you will get owned and burned on this topic, i suggest you run away

[TheNokAz]

No, you are wrong over time IQ increases it is basic Nurture and Nature, you learn from the environment around you, if you grew up around people with mental illnesses your are not just going to be a genius who can recite shakespeare or calculate vectors, again your genetics are also important in the determination, but genetics change they do not remain constant with every generation, EXAMPLE you were placed in a 3rd world country your future genrations would not be as smart as you. It is logic.

[Eldeecue]

Um....evolution won't make us smarter unless there's some mechanic that either kills the stupid, keeps the stupid from breeding, or ensures that the smart have more kids than the stupid.

Most studies indicate that Gifted and above intelligence folks tend to have _less_ children than do 100 IQ or so folks. Sadly....those who are too stupid to figure out how a condom works are for more likely to procreate.

And....actually, many "geniuses" were mentally ill. Geniuses are freaks. Good ones.

[hyperthreaded]

The guy is nuts. He claims that he couldn't have accurately predicted the future 40 years ago, even though he's a scientist. But the fact is: To be as wrong about the future as Mr. Ehrlich was in 1968, it wouldn't have taken a scientist. If you had asked some random guy on the street in 1968 about his predictions for the year 2000, chances are that his answer would've been a lot closer to the truth than what the "scientist" Paul Ehrlich predicted at the same time!

[KenyanObama]

延着远处向下爬

[glorp896]

Alright Mark Proffitt you PROFITING PROPHET OF professing abundance you! go ahead and get 'em mark! sick 'em boy! give PAUL E. a good techno progress bite in this doomsdayer rotting carcass.

[jd27x]

Coldest winter in 28 years here, doesn look like its getting warmer to me

[mbleek2001]

A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells, the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions. Prof. Paul Ehrlich, Such as killing the people by spraying chemicals. In my book that is murder and evil. Who is to decide that we have a population problem. We have avaricious-rich problem.

[glorp896]

actually the hoarding of some wealth delays or stunts the massive middle class shopping spree that would occur if redistribution of wealth were to occur...

imagine the 3rd world all wanting cars, refrigs, central air, and loads of stuff we american pigs take for granted... and then getting it due to some Maoist shopping spree for the poor?

[bejocy]

"Give your child an IUD to take to show and tell" -- Paul Ehrlich, "The Population Bomb," page 182

[procommenter]

"...The first task is population control at home. How do we go about it? Many of my colleagues feel that some sort of compulsory birth regulation would be necessary to achieve such control. One plan often mentioned involves the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size." -- Paul Ehrlich, "The Population Bomb," pages 130-131

[ymirfrostgiant]

@procommenter

Great, now quote from the rest of his argument.

[olmec1980]

Must be nice. Just spew continually inaccurate, and on top of it, evil, bullshit you entire career, and never be called out about it and still be worshipped as some sort of intellectual with something valuable to say. Must be nice.

[youareliedto]

the first comments are about how hes wrong all the time. i love how people give intellectuals like this credibility.

[youareliedto]

this guy is intellectual recklessness at its worst. so first, the globe is cooling,not warming. carbon dioxide is insignificant, it follows temperature not vice versa. temperature is regulated by cloud cover and sun activity. duh. this guy wants to take away your right to have a family if you dont pass a government test. read "ecoscience: population, resources, environment" him and John Holdren talk about world government to dole out breeding licenses. wake up guys, this is elitism.

[KenyanObama]

Paul Ehrlich is a eugenicist. He calls for the murder

of 90% of humanity through managed food & water shortages; forced sterilization; poisoned serums & infanticide...

[PeterPancrease]

From what source?

Cause I don't think he's calling for it, but ,instead, laying out the consequences of our continual capitalistic actions in destroying our life support system, Earth.

What ever you claim seems 100x more radical then anything that I've from this or Green Anarchist on the matter.

[KenyanObama]

See the Georgia Guide Stones.

Read Ehrlich's silly books: "The Population Bomb" & "The End of Affluence." Better yet, read Alvin Toffler's "The Third Wave." Toffler's NOT a eugenicist.

[glorp896]

Eugenics is GOOD GENETICS, and you prefer malgenics? Malgenics is what we have... we can evolve quicker by the willful intelligent decisions of humanity with education and hopefully only voluntary action - as it is now the most stupid people have the most kids, while the high IQ breed infrequently... this is a case for deevolution, malgenics... we need mass sterilization... china is doing the infanticide thing... many a doctor jack kevorkian we need!

[KenyanObama]

You write poorly. You are a prime

candidate for sterilization.

[glorp896]

i write very fast, take short cuts and don't think this forum, restrictions and audience is worthy of my best - i got about 6 100%s in college on my research papers, writing was my favorite part of college... i've been published and had two teachers tell me i should be... I could write much better this is just my hack fast style, i type fast and have adopted some text message efficiencies as well, that are seen as WRITING POORLY... i have my own syntax and grammar, don't like it? tough

[glorp896]

would you sterilize someone that graduated with honors from college?... of course i wouldn't want to be hard on the atheist vegans out there...

blacks should be sterilized the most, they have the highest disease rates (behavioral and genetic), highest crime rates, smallest and least complex brains (lowest IQ), the worst sexual lifestyles, etc... sterilize the inferiors...

[TheNokAz]

Disease, sexual life styles, and IQ can all be connected in this case. Sub-Sahara Africa is the location of what you claim 'inferiors' are from, the key to fixing all of these is EDUCATION and AID. If women are given education this logically generates less STD cases and promotes higher "IQ." Food will decrease crime AND increase IQ, how? The people do not have adequate nutrients in their diet, primarily protein, which is needed for the NORMAL development of the brain.

[glorp896]

its more than a claim, its provable on so many levels... you are wrong, education and AID is PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, they would respond to it the LEAST well of all people around the world... abos are close also as to this bottom of the barrel group of people, and actually more south of the sub-saharans are the worst, Zaire... pygmies... you can do your research on richard lynn's site for one... richard lynn does concede a 5 point or so gain IF they had better nutrition...

[TheNokAz]

Before Swine? I understand that giving aid would in most corrupt countries is useless, but there are ways for the aid to be useful, Yes, now you are speaking of one generation it will increase 5, if they had a average global education and proper nutrition, would we not see an increase in IQ in FUTURE generation?

[glorp896]

read the bible verse, Mat. 7:6 and beyond, in this context the SWINE are the negros... and yes, pigs will eat you...

many african 3rd world countries spend a MUCH higher percent of their GDP on military stuff than even the very high spending USA...

as to your last question, i already told you what richard lynn said... is less than 500 characters too much reading for you? - you should try to read all of somebody's posts before responding to one...

[glorp896]

your ideas are have been tested, all these variables and many more have been controlled in many tests... double blind, twin studies, etc... they won't magically become equal given the EXACT same environmental conditions, this has been proven MANY times over... the pattern holds, africans are THE inferior humans overall... i wouldn't want to race kenyans long distance though!

[glorp896]

according to richard lynn's global IQ charts, kenya has an IQ of 72... so by the odds of it you'd make a much better candidate than me, if only considering country of origin... and if you are black especially... are you?

even equal IQ blacks are inferior relative to their progeny and the regression to the mean, meaning that if 1000 black couples with an average IQ of 130 (good luck finding them), and a matching group of whites had kids, the blacks would have dumber kids...

[KenyanObama]

You will be eliminated in the New World Order.

[glorp896]

no, just the inferiors

[KenyanObama]

That's you.

[rob2859]

i like his logic.

[TheAgleh]

This is a very funny talk - he points out that people can still get through university even at Stanford without knowing the smallest thing about science.

[TheAgleh]

What a delightful talk, He is so funny~

[TheAgleh]

What a delightful talk - he is so funny!

[thinkglobally123]

total liar!

[bakulator]

hi guys, i've got some request. If anybody was so nice and write here 10 minutes text from this lecture, i would be very grateful. It is very important to me, because i only understand this text a bit and i need to know first 10 minutes of this text. Pleeeeaaase do this for me :)) cause you understand everything and i don't :(

[THETURBOHEAD]

it's always nice to hear truth

[nealezumm]

@THETURBOHEAD Nice?

[uwanastake]

Attaining an oppurtunity to be able to witness a continuation of this lecture just adds to my desire to attend Standford Univery. We're currently leaning about this topic in School(9th Grade).