Editing The Population Bomb (section)

==General description of the book==
[[File:Population curve.svg|thumb|350px|Graph of [[human population]] from 10,000 BC to 2017 AD. It shows the extremely rapid growth in the world population since the eighteenth century.]]

''The Population Bomb'' was written at the suggestion of [[David Brower]], the executive director of the environmentalist [[Sierra Club]], and [[Ian Ballantine]] of [[Ballantine Books]] following various public appearances Ehrlich had made regarding population issues and their relation to the environment. Although the Ehrlichs collaborated on the book, the publisher insisted that a single author be credited, and also asked to change their preferred title: ''Population, Resources, and Environment.''<ref name=":1" /> The title ''Population Bomb'' was taken (with permission) from [[William Henry Draper, Jr.|General William H. Draper]], founder of the [[Population Action International|Population Crisis Committee]] and a widely spread pamphlet ''The Population Bomb is Everyone's Baby'' issued in 1954 by the Hugh Moore Fund.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ehrlich |first=Paul R. |url=http://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl |title=The population bomb |date=1968 |publisher=New York, Ballantine Books |others=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Jacobsen |first=Peter |date=2022-03-31 |title=Meet the Advertising Expert who Inspired Today's Anti-Population Propaganda {{!}} Peter Jacobsen |url=https://fee.org/articles/meet-the-advertising-expert-who-inspired-todays-anti-population-propaganda/ |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=fee.org |language=en}}</ref> The Ehrlichs regret the choice of title, which they admit was a perfect choice from a marketing perspective, but think that "it led Paul to be miscategorized as solely focused on human numbers, despite our interest in all the factors affecting the human trajectory."<ref name=":1" />

Early editions of ''The Population Bomb'' began with the statement:
{{quote|''The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate...''<ref name="Population Bomb">{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1968}}</ref>}}

Much of the book is spent describing the state of the environment and the [[food security]] situation, which is described as increasingly dire. The Ehrlichs argue that as the existing population was not being fed adequately, and as it was growing rapidly, it was unreasonable to expect sufficient improvements in food production to feed everyone. They further argued that the growing population placed escalating strains on all aspects of the natural world.  "What needs to be done?" they wrote, "We must rapidly bring the world population under control, reducing the growth rate to zero or making it negative. Conscious regulation of human numbers must be achieved. Simultaneously we must, at least temporarily, greatly increase our food production."

=== Possible solutions ===
Paul and Anne Ehrlich described a number of "ideas on how these goals ''might'' be reached."<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/131 131]}}</ref> They believed that the United States should take a leading role in population control, both because it was already consuming much more than the rest of the world, and therefore had a moral duty to reduce its impact, and because the US would have to lead international efforts due to its prominence in the world, in order to avoid charges of hypocrisy or racism it would have to take the lead in population reduction efforts.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/135 135]}}</ref> The Ehrlichs float the idea of adding "[[Chemical castration|temporary sterilants]]" to the water supply or staple foods. However, they reject the idea as unpractical due to "criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area."<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/136 136]|quote = Those of you who are appalled at such a suggestion can rest easy. The option isn't even open to us, thanks to the criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area. If the choice now is either such additives or catastrophe, we shall have catastrophe. It might be possible to develop such population control tools, although the task would not be simple.... Technical problems aside, I suspect you'll agree with me that society would probably dissolve before sterilants were added to the water supply by the government. Just consider the fluoridation controversy. Some other way will have to be found.}}</ref> They suggest a tax scheme in which additional children would add to a family's tax burden at increasing rates for more children, as well as [[luxury tax]]es on childcare goods. They suggest incentives for men who agree to permanent sterilization before they have two children, as well as a variety of other monetary incentives. They propose a powerful Department of Population and Environment which "should be set up with the power to take whatever steps are necessary to establish a reasonable population size in the United States and to put an end to the steady deterioration of our environment."<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/138 138]}}</ref> The department should support research into population control, such as better [[contraceptive]]s, mass sterilizing agents, and [[prenatal sex discernment]] (because families often continue to have children until a male is born. The Ehrlichs suggested that if they could choose a male child this would reduce the birthrate). Legislation should be enacted guaranteeing the right to an [[abortion]], and [[sex education]] should be expanded.

After explaining the domestic policies the US should pursue, they discuss foreign policy. They advocate a system of "triage," such as that suggested by William and Paul Paddock in ''[[Famine 1975!]]''. Under this system countries would be divided into categories based on their abilities to feed themselves going forward. Countries with sufficient programmes in place to limit population growth, and the ability to become self-sufficient in the future would continue to receive food aid. Countries, for example India, which were "so far behind in the population-food game that there is no hope that our food aid will see them through to self-sufficiency" would have their food aid eliminated. The Ehrlichs argued that this was the only realistic strategy in the long-term. Ehrlich applauds the Paddocks' "courage and foresight" in proposing such a solution.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title = The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/161 161]}}</ref> The Ehrlichs further discusses the need to set up public education programs and agricultural development schemes in developing countries. They argue that the scheme would likely have to be implemented outside the framework of the [[United Nations]] due to the necessity selecting the targeted regions and countries, and suggests that within countries certain regions should be prioritized to the extent that cooperative [[separatist movement]]s should be encouraged if they are an improvement over the existing authority. He mentions his support for government mandated sterilization of Indian males with three or more children.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb.|url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|pages=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/165 165–66]|quote=When he [Indian Minister [[Sripati Chandrasekhar]]] suggested sterilizing all Indian males with three or more children, we should have applied pressure on the Indian government to go ahead with the plan. We should have volunteered logistic support in the form of helicopters, vehicles, and surgical instruments. We should have sent doctors to aid in the program by setting up centers for training para-medical personnel to do vasectomies. Coercion? Perhaps, but coercion in a good cause. I am sometimes astounded at the attitudes of Americans who are horrified at the prospect of our government insisting on population control as the price of food aid. All too often the very same people are fully in support of applying military force against those who disagree with our form of government or our foreign policy. We must be relentless in pushing for population control around the world.}}</ref>

In the rest of the book the Ehrlichs discuss things which readers can do to help. This is focused primarily on changing public opinion to create pressure on politicians to enact the policies they suggest, which they believed were not politically possible in 1968. At the end of the book they discuss the possibility that his forecasts may be wrong, which they felt they must acknowledge as scientists. However, they believe that regardless of coming catastrophes, his prescriptions would only benefit humanity, and would be the right course of action in any case.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ehrlich, Paul R.|title=The Population Bomb. |url=https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl|url-access=registration|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/populationbomb00ehrl/page/198 198]}}</ref>

The book sold over two million copies, raised the general awareness of population and environmental issues, and influenced 1960s and 1970s public policy.<ref name=":1" />  For the 14 years prior the book's appearance, the world population had been growing at accelerating rates, but immediately after the book's publication, the world population growth rate coincidentally began a continuing downward trend, from its 1968 peak of 2.09% to 1.09% in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=World Population by Year |url=http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/ |website=Worldometers |access-date=27 December 2018}}</ref>