The Population Bomb

Paul Ehrlich, a professor of biology at Stanford University, published a book on overpopulation in 1968 called The Population Bomb. In his book, Ehrlich warned the world of the dangers of population growth. His fears seem to have been well founded, as the human population doubles over and over again in decreasing time periods. From 1650-1850, the population doubled to a total of 1 billion. From 1850-1930 it doubled again, and from 1930-1975 the population rested at 4 billion. The increased population has increased pollution, caused starvation, and overcrowding, all signs that when observed by biologists in the natural world indicate an approaching population crash.

Julian Simon, economics professor at Maryland University, disagrees with Ehrlich saying that human ideas and technology will continue to improve fast enough to keep up with human population increases. In fact, he argues that the more people ther are, the more great minds will emerge to make life better for others. One of the problems in Simon's hypothesis, is that the majority of population growth is happening in third world countries where education is sparse and great men of science are few and far between.