The Population Bomb: Mass Starvation in the 1970s
'The Battle to Feed All of Humanity Is Over,' Said 1968. The Scoreboard Disagrees.
The Population Bomb forecast hundreds of millions of famine deaths in the 1970s. Population doubled; the hungry share roughly halved.
What was said
“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”
— Paul R. Ehrlich (co-written with Anne H. Ehrlich) · said 1968 · due the 1970s
Since 1968 world population has more than doubled while the share of undernourished people roughly halved. Famines did happen, tragically, but they were mostly political, not arithmetic.
The fine print
Opening lines of early editions of The Population Bomb (later editions changed '1970s' to '1970s and 1980s'). Wikipedia summarises that the global death rate kept falling and that the undernourished share fell from about 33% to about 16%. The revised-edition text on file reads: 'In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate.' The first-edition wording ('In the 1970s') is as summarised by Wikipedia; we have not opened a 1968 scan.
Later spin
The Ehrlichs later said the book's scenarios 'were not predictions'.
Sources
- The Population Bomb - Wikipediaaccessed 2026-09-29
- The Population Bomb, prologue and chapter 1 (reprint scan, LSU Law Center)accessed 2026-10-09
- The Population Bomb, revised edition text (Ted K Archive; 1971 revised edition)accessed 2026-10-09
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
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