The Dominant Animal: "We're facing a gigantic transition" (interview with E&E TV)
"We're facing a gigantic transition" (interview with E&E TV)
Excerpt from E&E TV's July 24 interview with Paul Ehrlich:
Monica Trauzzi: Paul, you made a name for yourself in the 60s by publishing "The Population Bomb" and it took a hard look at population growth and the impact that it could have on food supplies, the environment. With all due respect, there are probably some viewers out there that are thinking "Him again?"
Paul Ehrlich: Him again, yeah, well, I'm sorry. I just haven't died.
Monica Trauzzi: What's the new message that you're putting forth in this new book "The Dominant Animal" that might get some of these skeptics that on your side?
Paul Ehrlich: Well, it's an updated message basically. The things that have changed have almost all changed in a negative direction. For instance, when "The Population Bomb" was written, we didn't know anything about the destruction of the ozone layer. We thought that global climate change, climate disruption, was going to be something for the end of this century because we only knew half of the greenhouse forcing. We knew about carbon dioxide, but we didn't know about the other greenhouse gases. Norman Myers hadn't pointed out that the tropical forests were disappearing and we were losing the working parts of our life-support systems. We wrote about big epidemics, but AIDS hadn't hit yet. So, basically the things are back where they were then only much, much worse, because, of course, because instead of having 3 1/2 billion people today we have almost twice that many. We've added more people to the planet since I wrote that book than were alive when I was born in 1932, which seems like a very short time ago to me.
Monica Trauzzi: So, you're saying what, that humans are doing things that are damaging the environment, we're damaging the world we're living in and we're not going to be able to continue living here?
Paul Ehrlich: "The Dominant Animal," A, tells you where we came from. Most people don't know that. How did we get to be the dominant animal? How did we get the enormous cultural power that's allowing us to change the entire planet? And then second, why are we changing the entire planet stupidly in ways that are going to make it impossible for us to continue civilization? And the scientific community is essentially unanimous on this and the big problem today is how in hell do you get people to pay attention and change their behavior? I mean we're having a presidential election in which none of the truly crucial issues are being properly addressed...
For video and a transcript of the interview: http://www.eenews.net/tv/2
Monica Trauzzi: Paul, you made a name for yourself in the 60s by publishing "The Population Bomb" and it took a hard look at population growth and the impact that it could have on food supplies, the environment. With all due respect, there are probably some viewers out there that are thinking "Him again?"
Paul Ehrlich: Him again, yeah, well, I'm sorry. I just haven't died.
Monica Trauzzi: What's the new message that you're putting forth in this new book "The Dominant Animal" that might get some of these skeptics that on your side?
Paul Ehrlich: Well, it's an updated message basically. The things that have changed have almost all changed in a negative direction. For instance, when "The Population Bomb" was written, we didn't know anything about the destruction of the ozone layer. We thought that global climate change, climate disruption, was going to be something for the end of this century because we only knew half of the greenhouse forcing. We knew about carbon dioxide, but we didn't know about the other greenhouse gases. Norman Myers hadn't pointed out that the tropical forests were disappearing and we were losing the working parts of our life-support systems. We wrote about big epidemics, but AIDS hadn't hit yet. So, basically the things are back where they were then only much, much worse, because, of course, because instead of having 3 1/2 billion people today we have almost twice that many. We've added more people to the planet since I wrote that book than were alive when I was born in 1932, which seems like a very short time ago to me.
Monica Trauzzi: So, you're saying what, that humans are doing things that are damaging the environment, we're damaging the world we're living in and we're not going to be able to continue living here?
Paul Ehrlich: "The Dominant Animal," A, tells you where we came from. Most people don't know that. How did we get to be the dominant animal? How did we get the enormous cultural power that's allowing us to change the entire planet? And then second, why are we changing the entire planet stupidly in ways that are going to make it impossible for us to continue civilization? And the scientific community is essentially unanimous on this and the big problem today is how in hell do you get people to pay attention and change their behavior? I mean we're having a presidential election in which none of the truly crucial issues are being properly addressed...
For video and a transcript of the interview: http://www.eenews.net/tv/2