[D66] 'Collapse of civilisation is a near certainty within decades'

[A.O.]

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/22/collapse-civilisation-near-certain-decades-population-bomb-paul-ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich: 'Collapse of civilisation is a near certainty within decades'

By Damian Carrington, www.theguardian.com
View Original
March 22nd, 2018

Fifty years after the publication of his controversial book The
Population Bomb, biologist Paul Ehrlich warns overpopulation and
overconsumption are driving us over the edge
The toxification of the planet with synthetic chemicals may be more
dangerous to people and wildlife than climate change, says Ehrlich.


A shattering collapse of civilisation is a “near certainty” in the next
few decades due to humanity’s continuing destruction of the natural
world that sustains all life on Earth, according to biologist Prof Paul
Ehrlich.

In May, it will be 50 years since the eminent biologist published his
most famous and controversial book, The Population Bomb. But Ehrlich
remains as outspoken as ever.

The world’s optimum population is less than two billion people – 5.6
billion fewer than on the planet today, he argues, and there is an
increasing toxification of the entire planet by synthetic chemicals that
may be more dangerous to people and wildlife than climate change.

Ehrlich also says an unprecedented redistribution of wealth is needed to
end the over-consumption of resources, but “the rich who now run the
global system – that hold the annual ‘world destroyer’ meetings in Davos
– are unlikely to let it happen”.

The Population Bomb, written with his wife Anne Ehrlich in 1968,
predicted “hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death”
in the 1970s – a fate that was avoided by the green revolution in
intensive agriculture.

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