The long shadow of Paul Ehrlich’s ‘Population Bomb’ is evident in anti-immigration efforts today

In the 1960s and ’70s, his arguments also resonated on the left, including with the head of a powerful environmental group.

By: Brian C. Keegan, University of Colorado Boulder; Harvard University and Emily Klancher Merchant, University of California, Davis, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 26, 2026

Words: 1,448

Last Updated: 4 months ago

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By Brian C. Keegan, University of Colorado Boulder; Harvard University and Emily Klancher Merchant, University of California, Davis

Paul Ehrlich opened his 1968 book “The Population Bomb” with a scene recounting returning to his hotel through a crowded Delhi neighborhood on a stifling night in the mid-1960s. He described the physical sensation of overpopulation: people eating, washing, arguing, begging – “people, people, people, people.”

From that visceral opening, he declared that famine, conflict and nuclear …

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