Re: Peters post below on Paul Ehrlichs population bomb being a wet firecracker (as I have always called it). I recently taped a PBS episode of "Uncommon Knowledge" with Ehrlich out in California; it is not scheduled to air until November, and Ill try to let NLT readers know when it is on. But several observations on the Great Doomster:
In person Ehrlich is a very nice and engaging man, not at all nasty like his prose sometimes is. He freely admitted that he has made many wrong predictions in the past, and also that he is a Malthusian Doomsayer. Most environmentalists run like scalded dogs from the labels "Doomsayer" or "Malthusian."
I was struck that perhaps this is all a pose to sell books, win prizes cash prizes from idiots like Ted Turner and the MacArthur Foundation (which he has done). But his day has past, even before the NY Times realized it. Keep in mind, back when Peter was in school reading The Population Bomb, Ehrlich was a mega best-selling author with front line publishers like Simon & Schuster; he was a frequent guest on the Tonight Show with Johhny Carson. Today he publishes his alarmist tomes with Island Press, a small environmental press. And have you even seen him on C-SPAN lately? Now he has to slum it with the likes of me on a small syndicated PBS show where he gets smacked around by both me and the host. Its all over for these guys.
Since Im making commercial announcements, I am scheduled to be on CNBC tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 6:50 am (eastern) to debate someone from the League of Conservation Voters on the environment and the election. Should be fun.
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