The Evolution of Culture - Paul Ehrlich

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/06/27/Paul_Ehrlich_The_Dominant_Animal

Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich discusses the rapidly-accelerating evolution of human culture.

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Paul Ehrlich gives a seminar at the Long Now Foundation on his book, The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment, in which he examines the evolution of human culture and its effect on the environment.

Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a Stanford University professor and a renowned entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera (butterflies). He is also well known as a researcher and author on the subject of human overpopulation. 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.

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[meadowfabricsdotcom]

@justindr660 - Really? I have an essay written in 1970 by Ehrlich where he says "I predict that within 30 years, more than 100 million people will be starving to death every year".

[fossilman2]

One thing to consider in cultural evolution is the uniqueness of our current position. We are at a global turning point for our species. Like any plague species we are at the cusp of a major die off. How will our various cultures respond ? How will the relatively new and constantly in flux advanced techno-culture change when it's expansion must of needs (lack of high quality energy) begin a contraction.

[procommenter]

You'll have to read more.

[fossilman2]

You not only cannot prove any of those claims about nearly unlimited fossil fuels, but are doing everyone a disservice by spewing your fantasies on a public forum. We all wish it were so, but it is not. The only thing worse than peaking and declining fossil fuels is it's opposite...a perpetual abundance, which given our past behavior would allow us to completely destroy the living arrangements for us and every other species larger than protozoans.

[procommenter]

Trillions of dollars of oil have been discovered in the Caspian Sea Basin; there's a 1,000 years' worth of low sulfur/high-compliance coal in Utah, that Clinton {through presidential edict} has declared off-limits. Alberta Province has more oil {it's within the tar sand} than the Arabian Peninsula. Paul Ehrlich in "The Population Bomb" & in "The End of Affluence" warned us that the sky was following in the '70's and that: starvation would be widespread in the States by the mid-'80's.

[EvanChaim]

You are so enlightened...