The False Environmental Prophet?

Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey examines the book, One With Nineveh, to find out what environmental catastrophes await us.

1 minute read

May 27, 2004, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen

Bailey writes, "Environmentalist Paul Ehrlich has proved himself to be a stupendously bad prophet. In 1968 he declared: 'The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines -- hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.' They didn't. Indeed, a green revolution nearly tripled the world's food supply. In 1975, he predicted that, by the mid-1980s, 'mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity,' in which 'accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion.' Far from it. Between 1975 and 2000 the World Bank's commodity price index for minerals and metals fell by nearly 50%."

Thanks to Chris Steins

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