100 to 200 Million People a Year Starving to Death by the End of the 1970s
Paul Ehrlich, 1970: The Death Rate Will Rise Until 'At Least 100-200 Million People Per Year' Are Starving
In a Mademoiselle interview around the first Earth Day, the Population Bomb author said food could never keep up and set a ten-year clock.
What was said
“The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
— Paul Ehrlich (Stanford biologist, author of The Population Bomb) · said Apr 1970 · due During the next ten years (by 1980)
The 1970s ended with world food output outpacing population. Reason: food per person rose 26 percent from 1970 to 2000 and the Green Revolution kept spreading.
The fine print
From an interview with journalist Peter Collier in the April 1970 Mademoiselle. It opened: 'Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make.' Ehrlich also said the Green Revolution 'is going to turn brown.' The forecast is the subject here, not anyone who suffered real hunger.
Sources
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
Put this counter on your site →