Paul Ehrlich, Stanford Biologist Who Wrote The Population Bomb, Dies at 93

Paul R. Ehrlich, the Stanford biologist whose 1968 book The Population Bomb warned that rapid population growth would outrun the world’s food supply, died Friday at 93. The Boston Globe reported that he died at a nursing facility in his Palo Alto retirement community and that his daughter, Lisa Marie Daniel, said the cause was complications of cancer. Stanford Magazine also reported that he died in Palo Alto on March 13 of complications from cancer.

Ehrlich joined Stanford’s faculty in 1959 as an assistant professor of biology, according to Stanford Magazine, and became a full professor in 1966, the Globe reported. He trained as an entomologist, with a doctorate from the University of Kansas, and studied butterflies for decades. The magazine said he was a driving force in protecting the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, where he studied the bay checkerspot butterfly. His 1964 paper with Peter Raven is described by Stanford Magazine as a seminal work that introduced the concept of co-evolution.

The Population Bomb, written with his wife, Anne, who was not credited as co-author, sold about 3 million copies, both the Globe and Stanford Magazine reported. The Globe said it argued that population growth had outpaced food production and urged couples to have one or two children. It opened with the line “The battle to feed all of humanity is over,” the Palo Alto Daily Post reported in an Associated Press obituary. Ehrlich appeared about 20 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, according to the Globe and Stanford Magazine.

He also led institutions. The Globe reported that he co-founded Zero Population Growth in 1968 and Stanford’s Center for Conservation Biology in 1984, and Stanford Magazine said he helped found Stanford’s human biology major in 1971. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1990, both outlets said.

His forecasts drew sustained criticism. The Globe reported that conservatives, business figures and academic rivals attacked them as alarmist, and that some predictions, such as mass starvation in the United States, did not happen. Stanford Magazine said critics noted that he never acknowledged that predictions of worldwide famine and “hundreds of millions” of deaths may have been premature or wrong. The Daily Post’s Associated Press report said the Green Revolution, a campaign led in part by Norman Borlaug, reduced famine risk and that detractors called him a “prophet of doom.”

The best-known test of his views was a bet. In 1980, Ehrlich wagered economist Julian Simon that the prices of five metals would rise during the 1980s. He lost, and in 1990 paid Simon $576.07, the Globe and the Daily Post both reported.

Ehrlich defended his work throughout. The Globe said his 1996 book Betrayal of Science and Reason answered critics. The Daily Post reported that in 2009 he said The Population Bomb had been “way too optimistic”, and the Globe reported that in 2018 he called civilizational collapse a “near certainty” within decades.

He wrote or edited about 50 books, according to the Globe; Stanford Magazine put the number at more than 40. He is survived by Anne Ehrlich, his wife of 72 years, a daughter, two granddaughters, a step-granddaughter, two great-grandchildren, four step-great-grandchildren and a sister, according to the Globe and Stanford Magazine.