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Paul R. Ehrlich Biography

Paul R. Ehrlich

Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist, best known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of Stanford University and president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology.

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Paul R. Ehrlich Quotes

I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.

Alarmists, England, Money, Year, Years

Organisms are starting to move in response to climate change all over the place. Bees are disappearing and we don't have many of the native pollinators left to replace them. We're in deep trouble; there's no question about it. But ecologists tend to think of something that's going to be bad in ten years as very fast, and of course, politicians only think of things in a two-, four-, six-year cycle.

Change, Moving, Question, Thinking, Years

I don't like the idea of teaching religion in schools, and creation is not my thing, but that's a trivial point compared to saving the creation. I'd much rather have half of the people in the country be creationists and work really hard to save the creation than have everybody be evolutionists and be destroying the planet.

Country, Hard, School, Schools, Teaching, Thing

For example, I'm a great fan of pornography, but I don't see any reason not to restrict it so that people walking down the street who hate pornography don't have full color pictures outside of movie theaters. Let them be in a different district. I'm kidding about pornography, but you get the point.

Color, Different, Hate, Movie, People

There are substitutes for oil; there is no substitute for fresh water.

Fresh, Oil, Substitute, Substitutes, Water

Your children should have it impressed upon them that their adult life-style will bear very little resemblance to yours and that they should now be acquiring knowledge, skills, values, and tastes that will sustain them in less materially affluent circumstances. On the other hand, the fresh insights and imaginations of your children may help you find a viable future while there's still time.

Adult, Children, Circumstances, Hands, Impressed, Skills

There's all of this stuff where we have so much debate over nonsense; it could be cured if we had a better educational system, if we trained people to really try and look into things on their own. That's a tough thing to do, particularly with the educational system staggering.

Educational, Look, People, Tough, Trained, Trying

With taxes, if they aren't working right, we can change them with a stroke of the pen. It's basically a market-type mechanism. People make their own choices. You run the taxes, and you get the results.

Choices, People, Run, Running, Taxes, Working

We know that if you have $20 million, it's better to buy a van Gough print than it is buy an executive jet, from the point of view of the environment. But when you start getting down, it's like the recycling question: What are things we can really afford to do, and how much pleasure do we get out of them? We haven't even started to have that discussion, and it's getting awfully late.

Afford, Environment, Pleasure, Recycling, Start, Views

If we were redesigning around people instead of around automobiles, which I think the market is more or less going to do, although too slowly, than I'd be a lot cheerier.

Although, Automobile, Automobiles, Market, People, Thinking

The National Academy of Sciences would be unable to give a unanimous decision if asked whether the sun would rise tomorrow.

Decision, Give, Giving, Rise, Sun, Would Be

Anyone who opposes methods to control the birth rate, is automatically voting in favour having the death rate go up.

Birth Rate, Favour, Opposes, Rate, Voting

All scientists who've looked at it know we have to phase away from burning fossil fuels. That means we've got to put a lot of effort into alternate energy technologies, but we're still subsidizing fossil fuels and not subsidizing most of the alternatives. It's not going to be an easy transition.

Burning, Effort, Fuels, Mean, Technology

We're never all going to agree with each other. We have to learn to value the diversity. It's one of the presumable principles of our government that isn't followed nearly enough - one of the jobs of the majority is to try and make the minority feel comfortable.

Diversity, Government, Jobs, Make, Minority

So, regarding the time frame, I'm only too willing to admit that my crystal ball, like everybody else's, is cracked. If I could predict precisely, I would have started predicting the stock market and would now be living with a bunch of young women on Bora Bora, having bought it.

Balls, Bora Bora, Crystal, Crystals, Having, Regarding

There's no question at all that the population explosion will come to an end. The two basic choices are it'll come to an end because we control our reproduction, and in many areas we have started to do so, or we'll end up with a high death rate. You have to take a personal moral stand on this.

Choices, Death, Explosion, High, Population, Two

I see harm reduction as a way of engaging people as part of that path to recovery.

Engaging, Part, People, Recovery, Way

Actually, the problem in the world is that there are too many rich people.

People, Problem, World

Sometimes I think the Congress feels that if you only decided tomorrow to switch to wind power that in two years we'd be getting 80 percent of our electricity from wind power. It's nonsense. Normally it takes 20 to 30 years after a new technology is demonstrated and deployed before it powers even 15 or 20 percent of the grid. There's this long lag time, and we haven't even decided which directions to go.

Grid, Power, Technology, Thinking, Tomorrow, Two

I thought if the climate was heating that CO2 was the only forcing, and it would be late in the century before we had trouble. Now that we know about the other half of the forcing, it's obvious that the trouble is coming much sooner.

Climate, Coming, Half, Thought, Trouble, Would Be

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