Paul R. Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968) warned of imminent global famine, resource depletion, and social upheaval due to unchecked population growth, urging immediate action to curb birth rates and consumption.
Key Takeaways:
Warns that explosive population growth will outstrip food supplies, strain ecosystems, and destabilize societies unless rapid changes in birth control and consumption occur.
Predicts famine, resource wars, and environmental collapse, using vivid, sometimes alarmist scenarios to jolt readers into recognizing planetary limits.
Connects food security to demographic pressure, arguing that agricultural technology alone cannot solve hunger without addressing population and equity.
Becomes a lightning rod in debates over environmental policy, development, and reproductive rights—hugely influential even as many of its specific predictions are later contested.