Leavitt: Here's How ICE Deployment to Fix Democrats' Airport Disaster Impacts the Deportation Agenda

Chris Cuomo Claims Voter Fraud Doesn't Exist, Then Suggests a Little Is Fine

Dems Logjam DHS Funding Over Last Minute Additions Excluded from Proposed Deal

12 US Service Members Injured in Iranian Attack

Netflix Hikes Prices for Second Time in Just Over a Year

Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January

Rattlesnake Danger Growing in Southern California After Second Deadly Bite in Weeks

Paul Ehrlich's 'Population Bomb' Failure Shows the Dangers of Scientific Alarmism

But that never happened. Instead, food production and population growth boomed.

In 1969, Ehrlich told the New York Times that because of overpopulation, food production failure, and pollution: “We must realize that unless we are extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years.”

Though Ehrlich predicted complete doom for humanity by 1989, we are still here and thriving.

In 1980, Ehrlich famously bet free market economist Julian Simon $1,000 that the prices of five metals – chromium, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten – would increase due to scarcity during the 1980s. But the price of the basket of metals declined by 43 percent. Wrong again, Ehrlich lost what became known as “The Bet.”

Until the end, Ehrlich insisted that the carrying population of the Earth was as low as 1.5 billion people. Global population is now at 8.28 billion people and growing. Ehrlich was more than 6.75 billion people wrong.

Ehrlich’s bizarre leap from studying butterflies to human population and commodity forecasting led him down a career path to celebrity (he appeared on Johnny Carson’s late-night show 20 times) and academic fame (he was elected to be a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences).

But none of Ehrlich’s predictions were ever correct. Worse, he never really acknowledged his own non-stop laughable errors.

In his 2009 article, “The Population Bomb Revisited,” Ehrlich concluded: “The Population Bomb certainly had its flaws, which is to be expected. Science never produces certainty.”

But “certainty” is the goal of science. We were able to get to the moon in 1969 because we could use Newton’s laws to predict where the moon would be so we could aim Apollo 11 to meet it in orbit. That is exquisite certainty developed through science. Our modern world is entirely dependent on much other certainty that true science has produced.

Ehrlich blamed others for his errors, writing: “One of our personal strategies has always been to have our work reviewed carefully by other scientists, and The Population Bomb was no exception.

It was vetted by a series of scientists, including some who became top leaders in the scientific enterprise. That is one reason that long ago the fundamental message of The Bomb moved from a somewhat heterodox view to a near consensus view of the scientific community.”

The Population Bomb, however, was not scientific research. It was an alarmist polemic about overpopulation. In the book, Ehrlich even suggested adding contraceptives to drinking water supplies. There was never any consensus on Ehrlich’s views or overpopulation fears.

He may have been applauded by other members of the overpopulation cult, but that is hardly a scientific consensus. And science is not done by consensus in the first place.

Critics often call Ehrlich a “Malthusian,” referring to late-18th/early-19th century English economist Thomas Malthus, who also predicted population would outgrow the food supply. Malthus was also incorrect, but not malignantly so. He died in 1834 and did not live long enough to witness the otherwise unforeseeable technological revolution in food production.

Ehrlich was wrong at the start, in the middle, and at the end of his career. Yet he received accolades anyway and was never compelled to acknowledge he was just plain wrong. He repeatedly witnessed his own predictions fail, but political correctness saved him from any sort of accountability.

No, Ehrlich was not a Malthusian. He was just Paul Ehrlich, the population bomb.

Steve Milloy is a biostatistician and lawyer. He posts on X at @JunkScience.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Paul Ehrlich's 'Population Bomb' Failure Shows the Dangers of Scientific Alarmism

Rattlesnake Danger Growing in Southern California After Second Deadly Bite in Weeks

Markywane Mullin's Senate Seat to Be Replaced by Virtual Unknown Who Backed Trump Foe

Fetterman Furious After Seeing Video Dems Won't Condemn - Shows Trump Haters Cheering US Troops Returning in Caskets

Still Working to Root Out DEI, Trump Opens Investigations into Race-Based Admissions at 3 Medical Schools

What? Toronto's Foreign-Born Mayor Warns ICE to Stay Out of City – Where It Has No Authority

Watch: ICE Agents Working at Airport Give Whining Leftist the Exact Response He Deserves

Hegseth Slashes 'Faith Codes' in Move to Make Chaplains the Spiritual Backbone of the US Military

Education Department Abandons Headquarters as Agency Heads for Total Extinction

Trans Tide Is Turning: Idaho Criminalizes Trans Use of Incorrect Bathrooms in Private Businesses

Get the latest news delivered right to your email.

News, Politics, Culture, and more in realtime.

Subscribe to get the latest news delivered right to your email

Subscribe to get WJ’s daily email newsletter.

Log in to your account

Please type your email into the box that says "Enter your email..." and then click the "Log in with Email".

An email with a login link will be sent to you. After clicking the link within the email, a new browser tab should open to our website on the last page you were on. You should then be logged in on that device.

Email has been sent to with a login link. Simply click this link to login. You will not need your password.

If you don't see the email immediately, please check your spam and mark it as not spam. If you entered an incorrect email, restart your login.

Lifestyle & Human Interest

About Ethics and Editorial Standards Donate Membership

Ethics and Editorial Standards

Work With Us Partnership Advertise With Us WJ Wire Content Syndication Contact Us

WJ Wire Content Syndication

Find Us Become a Member Subscribe to the Newsletter Download the WJ App Watch WJ Movies

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Explore The Western Journal

Lifestyle & Human Interest

© Western Journalism