STEVE HAYWARD: Paul Ehrlich, RIP.

Paul Ehrlich, author of the monster 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, has died at 93. The book sold millions worldwide, and was translated into dozens of languages. Most college students from the time have told me they were assigned Ehrlich’s book in multiple classes.

I think it was Shostakovich who quipped that Vivaldi only had one idea, which he repeated 383 times. At least Vivaldi’s one idea was a good one. Ever since Ehrlich published his infamous book he came out with a sequel every year or two that repeated his basic Malthusian outlook on humans and the planet. I suppose at least Ehrlich deserves credit for recycling.

Because of course his main prediction was falsified, and quite quickly at that. He predicted that “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.”

Somehow I missed this news as a teen in the 1970s.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE:

The biggest bitch-making sick burn in the history of bitch-making sick burns pic.twitter.com/JGOvSmi0tl

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 16, 2026