The arguments Erlichman made were like: not everyone can have a telephone because there is not enough copper in the Earth’s crust.
Slows down. Safely navigates turn.
Ergo, warning was wrong. Stupid warnings.
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There's a name for this phenomenon.
Like how identifying ozone depletion beget policies to prevent said depletion. Doesn't mean the initial warning was wrong.
Regardless, this is exactly how (we hope) policy making is supposed to work.
This isn’t like the ozone hole, where we identified a problem and fixed it. He was just wrong.
Coincidently, If Books Can Kill reviewed The Population Bomb. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id...
I still think the Ehlrichs are moral cripples, and that they should not have made policy prescriptions. Like the '20s era Progressives (and others), early leftist environmentalists advocated terrible policies for "those people" while minimizing their own inconvenience. Eugenics, notably.
However, I was not aware of the zeitgeist about "overpopulation" at the time, nor how that meme came to support the reactionary project. For instance, morphing into today's rabid anti-Muslim organizations.
So my updated position is, on the balance, The Population Bomb did far more wrong and probably very little good.
My issue is that anti-Malthusian rhetoric, just like anti-anti-racism, often serves to concern troll and minimize actual pressing problems. "Ya, ya, ya. Climate crisis. Big deal. Y'all were wrong about overpopulation too. Calm down."
But two wrongs don't make a right. So I now agree with you wrt this book.
Why were the Ehrlichs wrong? Now that's an interesting question. (a la "All models are wrong. Some are useful.")
Per Hans Rosling, didn't take into account innovation, obviously. But also ignored sociology; eg urbanization and the resulting steep decline in birthrate.
With the climate crisis as context, Ehrlichs' biggest mistakes were:
- too soon.
- too combative, negative.
- making any kind of policy prescriptions. which were also utterly morally bankrupt.
A fable: http://englishaesop.blogspot.com/2010/07/fly-and-chariot.htm...