Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb, which predicted widespread famine in the 1970s.
Foreign media FOXhtml reported on November 3, CBS rang in the New Year’s Eve on Sunday night, as “Population Bomb” author and biologist Paul Ehrlich continued to warn Americans of the threat of “mass extinction” in “60 Minutes.”
reporter Scott Pelley spoke with Ehrlich about sustainability, and Ehrlich reiterated his claim that humans as a species are no longer sustainable due to our increasing population.
"The rate of extinction is very high right now and it's rising," Ehrlich said.
He explained: "Humanity is unsustainable. In order to sustain our entire planet's way of life (basically the way you and I live), you would need five more Earths. It's unclear where they come from.
Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, appears on 60 Minutes Minutes). (CBS)
In Ehrlich's 1968 book, he initially predicted widespread famine and the overall end of civilization within the next decade. Although Ehrlich was wrong on several counts, the program continues to present him as a reputable source.
"Ehrlich's alarm in '68 warned of widespread famine due to overpopulation. He was wrong. green revolution feeds the world. But he also wrote in 1968 that the heat generated by greenhouse gases would melt the polar ice and humans would drown the wild. Today, humans have occupied more than 70 percent of the earth's land and 70 percent of its fresh water," Paley said.
The clip also included comments from Ehrlich's colleague Tony Barnosky, claiming that no scientist would say "we are not in an extinction crisis."
"I panicked." I'm still in shock. All my colleagues were shocked," Ehrlich said.
Ehrlich predicted widespread famine due to population growth as early as 1968. (Aaron Chown/Pool via Reuters)
Ehrlich's comments and "60 Minutes" itself were being mocked into Monday for continuing to push the same incorrect predictions decades later.
Pluribus editor Jeryl Beale Bier tweeted, "Even spelled 'Ehrlich' wrong..."
"Is this archival footage from the 70s or is Ehrlich still around? Is CBS really that stupid???" said America's Promise Chairman Phil Kerpen.
Growth Club senior analyst Andrew Follett wrote: "'Biologist' Paul Erlich is wrong about every prediction he makes...yet the media keeps reporting on him..."
media strategist Gabriella Huffman Hoffman commented: “Protectionist environmentalism like this poses a serious threat to people and nature. This thinking is also the basis for most climate alarmism. Believing Paul Ehrlich should call one into question one's credibility.
"At 90 years old and still crazy (60 Minutes spelled his last name, of course, with their usual attention to detail). Ehrlich said humanity was done in the 1970s. We're not done yet. We won't be done anytime soon," Washington Examiner columnist Nathan Wurtzel said on Twitter.
"When a 90-year-old man tells you there are too many people, you can ask him why he still keeps going," joked Substack writer Jim Treacher.
Ehrlich went on to lament the lack of political action to address the extinction crisis.
"I know there is no political will to do anything that I care about, and that's exactly why I and the vast majority of my colleagues think we've got it; that the next few decades will be the end of the kind of civilization we're used to," Ehrlich said.
