Customer Reviews:
 We paid attention and got another 40 years July 3, 2008
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
With global warming making the cracking sound of ice melting at both poles,
it seems that even if we stave off starvation and scare resources,
our behavior is going to catch up with us.
No more technical fixes like ?:
1) improved oil exploration and well use
2) super-grains
3) more efficient light bulbs
The attacking on the SST airplane in this book was really unnecessary?The limits to Growth is another book from this era that talked about the same sort of problems.
There has lately been a rice price panic: it appears that
the doomsday clock is still ticking strongly.
He might have improved this by making it less of a dumbed down
"popular" book and more graphs and equations for populations
and biological competition, but he at least covered what needed to be covered.
Ray May 9, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Sorry, Mr Gallagher, I disagree with your review of The Population Bomb, which I find to be a useful book.
It is my opinion that if the US had continued to pursue the policies of conservation and alternative energy of the 1970s (engendered by the OPEC gas shortage) in this country (and other industrialized states)
that the world would be much better off while dealing with the starvation, disease, and war that Malthus predicted as controlling the world's population, and that we are encountering in the 21st century.
Personally, I see your review as shortsighted.
Hopefully, our govt and other industrialized states will return to the conservation and alternative fuel policies of the 70s (emphasizing oil shale, coal, wind, solar and water created energy--ethanol IMO is just a short term artificial solution to the fuel supply that takes food away from the starving masses)
Population limiting programs like in China, would be beneficial to 3rd world countries and the ability of world supply to meet world demand. (The population of industrialized nations has already been voluntarily limited).
 The Population Bomb is a Dud November 14, 2007
11 out of 18 found this review helpful
I read the Population Bomb when it first came out, and believed it. Paul Ehrlich envisioned a horrific future with mass starvation of millions, if not billions of people by 1995. As we now know, Ehrlich was a Malthusian of the worst order, and almost single-handedly gave environmentalists a bad name. He is the epitome of an alarmist who has significantly harmed the ability of reasonable environmentalists to be taken seriously (The Boy Who Cried Wolf Syndrome). I'm sure Dr. Ehrlich meant well, but boy, was he wrong. This book should rest in peace, never to be read again. Or, perhaps it could be read as a lesson learned in how to avoid making extremist statements that make you and your colleagues look stupid.
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