By Tom Turner Since the publication of The Population Bomb 40 years ago, Stanford scholar Paul Ehrlich has been among the most persistent voices warning against the unsustainability of increasing human numbers. During that time, his influence has waxed and waned as the number of homo sapiens continues to grow.
At 76 years old, Ehrlich is still going strong and making waves. Now his best friend and frequent collaborator has just been appointed science advisor to President Obama, so we're going to see the Ehrlich-Holdren approach to science and the world in action.
This profile will use interviews with the subject, his friends, loved ones,
colleagues, and intellectual opponents to paint a complete picture of the
man and his work.
The article will seek to reveal what drives Ehrlich. It should provide readers
with the basic elements of his biography, the forces that have shaped his
thinking and his personality, as well as a feeling for what he is like today.
The piece will be supported by editing from the Earth Island Institue who will also publish the content.
In charting his personal/professional ups-and-downs of going from a regular on the Tonight Show to a run-of-the-mill Stanford professorship, the article should use Ehrlich¹s experiences to trace the broader movement around population stabilization and ask whether his ideas have more or less resonance than they did 40 years ago.
