The Population Bomb was a bombshell best-seller when it was unleashed in 1968. Author Paul Ehrlich, a renowned biologist, warned of the consequences of unchecked population growth and introduced the term Zero Population Growth (ZPG).
The population then was less than half of today’s figure, yet the issue is barely mentioned now in the media and public discourse. Despite our greater awareness of climate change, peak oil and other related hazards, why did population slip off the radar?
In Wayne Brittenden’s fascinating interview , Professor Ehrlich, now 88 and still based at Stanford University, is as erudite and provocative as ever, reflecting on everything from the corporatisation of the university to the Trump era, the Corona Virus, heightened nuclear hazards , a troubling and virtually unknown aspect of climate change and much else – including even a bit about population!