Paul Ehrlich False Prophet of Doom
Phil Mitchell • March 22, 2026
One of history's great monsters just died.
The Monstrous evil of Paul Ehrlich
One of history’s great monsters died recently. Paul Ehrlich was a professor at Stanford who devoted his entire life to destroying members of the human race. He rose to fame in 1968 with the publication of, “The Population Bomb,” his epistle claiming population growth was about to produce mass starvation, and unless millions of people were either killed or prevented from existing the human race was doomed.
His terrible ideas did untold damage and yet to the end—when it was demonstrably clear he was wrong about everything—he never recanted. He told “60 Minutes” in 2023 that “humanity is not sustainable,” because we consume too many resources for our current lifestyle on the planet to bear. Even though in the years since the publication of Ehrlich’s book, earth’s population had increased by 5 billion people and we had all become immeasurably richer.
He had no regrets about having played a part in fueling concerns around population growth that were used to justify human rights abuses around the world.
He found human life itself repulsive, and the lives of the poor, especially, as unworthy to live.
He was an atheist. He rejected the existence of God and it led him down a dark, demonic path.
What did Paul Ehrlich propose we do about so-called over-population?
In 1970 he said, “We must have population control…by compulsion if voluntary methods fail.”
He suggested that the Federal Communications Commission “see to it that large families are always treated in a negative light on television.”
He proposed offering “responsibility prizes” to men who had vasectomies.
He approved of of involuntary sterilization—and pondered the possiblity of adding “sterilants” to basic foods and drinking water—as well as cultural and even financial pressure on parents and would-be parents not to reproduce.
Paul Ehrlich managed to be wrong about everything.
In the Wall Street Journal Jason Riley said, “Ehrlich was always wrong but never in doubt…Making spectacularly wrong predictions of imminent catastrophe became something of a habit for Ehrlich over the decades.”
The opening lines of “The Population Bomb” start with a spectacularly wrong prophesy: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.”
He predicted that 65 million Americans would die from famine and that “England will not exist in the year 2000.”
In that 2023 interview on 60 Minutes he said that the civilization we are used to is about to disappear.
Michael Fumento wryly said: “The butterfly specialist became both rich and famous by scaring the pants and skirts off the public despite being correct less often than the proverbial stopped clock.”
What are the consequences of Paul Ehrlich’s ideas?
Some of them became brutal government edicts. China instituted a one-child policy, restricting families to one child or facing forced abortion. It may the worst human rights violation of all time. India launched a campaign of compulsory sterilization.
A few years ago the Smithsonian magazine published an article on Ehrlich’s influence: “In Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan, health workers’ salaries were… dictated by the number of IUDs they inserted into women. In the Philippines, birth-control pills were literally pitched out of helicopters hovering over remote villages. Millions of people were sterilized, often coercively, sometimes illegally, frequently in unsafe conditions, in Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
In the 1970s and ’80s, India…embraced policies that in many states required sterilization for men and women to obtain water, electricity, ration cards, medical care and pay raises. Teachers could expel students from school if their parents weren’t sterilized. More than eight million men and women were sterilized in 1975 alone…For its part, China adopted a “one-child” policy that led to huge numbers—possibly 100 million—of coerced abortions, often in poor conditions contributing to infection, sterility and even death. Millions of forced sterilizations occurred.”
If a false prophet had, in Aztec fashion, called for a human sacrifice every morning he could not have done more harm.
Paul Ehrlich should have stayed away from gambling.
In 1980 the economist Julian Simon, annoyed by the “phony bad news” being fed to the public, wagered that Paul Ehrlich couldn’t name a single natural resource that would become more expensive over the next decade. Ehrlich accepted the bet and chose copper, chromium, tin, nickel and tungsten. He lost on all five.
It was really a wager about human ingenuity and free market capitalism. If Ehrlich was right, and people were devouring the Earth’s resources, then the price of those resources would go up. If Simon was right, human beings would respond to shortages with ingenuity, and prices would, in the long term, go down. In 1990 Simon won the bet and Ehrlich paid up.
Simon challenged Ehrlich to bet again on commodity prices over the next ten years. Ehrlich wisely declined that bet.
Why did people believe Ehrlich even after he was catastrophically wrong?
Paul Ehrlich’s ideas were popular. He was a media darling. He was on Johny Carson more than twenty times. One time Carson gave him a whole hour to spew his nonsense. The prestige press loved his narrative. The New York Times called him a scientist “who deeply loves our planet.”
It’s the characteristic of all cults. You trust the cult leader against all facts. People create a narrative that they cling to no matter what.
Catastrophism gives politicians power. So many politicians loved Ehrlich and the kind of leverage he gave him over people.
Facts did not matter to Ehrlich and neither do they matter to the Greens.
In Deuteronomy God says false prophecy is punishable by death. Paul Ehrlich is a demonstration of the wisdom of that warning. False prophecy, as well as false doctrine, gets people killed. By the millions. That’s why God hates it and we should hate it too.
More: The Great Deceptions: #1, The Overpopulation Hysteria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJgr4wQBss
WSJ, Jack Butler: Ehrlich was destructive: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/paul-ehrlichs-population-bomb-was-worse-than-a-dud-a2eb4f05?mod=FreeExpressionNewsletter
The media was behind Ehrlich: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/how-the-media-pushed-the-population-bomb-sham-for-decades-and-misled-generations/
The Professor who hated babies: https://unherd.com/2026/03/the-paul-ehrlich-bomb/?set_edition=us&tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&utm_source=UnHerd+Today&utm_campaign=8796a3db2b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_03_18_12_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_79fd0df946-8796a3db2b-35277013
Jason Riley, WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/paul-ehrlich-was-always-wrong-never-in-doubt-e2c27933?mod=itp_wsj,djemITP_h
Someone who almost wasn’t born because of Ehrlich: https://www.thefp.com/p/i-almost-didnt-survive-the-population?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
The bet: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/paul-ehrlich-julian-simon-bet-population-930f3560?mod=MorningEditorialReport&mod=djemMER_h
Michael Fumento--Paul Ehrlich Was Wicked: https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2026/03/18/paul_ehrlich_wasnt_premature_he_was_wicked_1171033.html
The Bet: https://fee.org/articles/how-julian-simon-won-1-000-bet-with-population-bomb-author-paul-ehrlich/
The human rights abuses set off by Ehrlich: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/book-incited-worldwide-fear-overpopulation-180967499/
Paul Ehrlich, false prophet: https://firstthings.com/paul-ehrlich-false-prophet/
401st Prophet Blog
The reasons Marxism has so much appeal.
The world's nations have wasted 16 trillion dollars trying to achieve the goals of the Green cult.
The false prophets of woke borrow from Christianity but ultimately reject it.
The war in Iran has a very strong religious dimension for the mullahs who run Iran.
This is how we enter the Kingdom of God--by being adopted into God's family.
There are a lot of different Christian denominations and that's a good thing.
The Epsteing scandals show the immense power of Christ in culture.
The problem is what's being taught.
The latest alternative to Christian marriage is polyamory--the marriage of three people to each other. What a disaster it's going to be.
It seems to be a social fad that is in decline.