Paul R. Ehrlich, the American biologist, environmentalist, and author of the controversial book The Population Bomb, died yesterday – March 13th 2026 – at the age of 93.

Formerly the Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University’s Department of Biology, Ehrlich was best known for his predictions and warnings about the consequences of human population growth.

Paul Ehrlich‘s core neo-Malthusian message was simple; that overpopulation posed a grave risk to humanity and that millions would die from hunger as food supplies globally became increasingly scarce.

In 1968, Ehrlich, along with his wife Anne, published the bestselling book The Population Bomb. From the opening page, The Population Bomb predicted worldwide famines due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and insisted urgent action was required to limit human population growth.

The book begins with the hard-hitting opening line: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now”. Ehrlich went on to write that massive social and environmental breakdown would occur by the end of the twentieth century.

Ehrlich’s book, lectures and public comments caused much division amongst both the public and his peers. He was embraced by the environmental movement of the day, whilst labelled by his critics as a “prophet of doom”.

Over half a century later, it’s easy to brush Ehrlich’s warnings aside by highlighting that his predictions didn’t turn into reality. But those with an understanding of the overpopulation problem are quick to point out that the detractors are missing the point.

As was the case with Thomas Malthus two centuries earlier, Ehrlich’s predictions only proved wrong because he underestimated the extent that man could and would go to provide the extra food and resources necessary to support an ever increasing population. Even 50 years ago, he would have been unaware of how quickly technology would advance and how those advances would be employed in agriculture, livestock breeding and the further extraction of natural resources from the planet.

He would also have been unaware that policy makers and health organisations would fund programs to make birth control more widely accessible. In the 1960s, the world’s fertility rate had hit its all-time high of 5 children per woman. If that rate hadn’t halved over the next few decades, today we would have 12 billion people on the planet instead of 8.3 billion, and humanity would have hit environmental and resource limits sooner and harder than is now likely to happen later this century.

Ehrlich’s legacy, therefore, will always be how he helped to shape the world’s thinking. As a scientist, biologist, and naturalist, he empowered the environmentalist movement, making the unpalatable topic of overpopulation, if not palatable, then at least more widely discussed.

Saying ‘it’s only consumption, it’s not the number of people that counts’ is like saying ‘the area of a rectangle is determined only by it’s width, not by it’s length’. Certainly, consumption is a big problem. So is population size. The two multiply together to give you your impact on your life support systems. Professor Paul R. Ehrlich

He founded Stanford’s Center for Nature and Society in 1984, and wrote more than 40 books and over 1,100 scientific articles on ecology, the environment and population dynamics.

He welcomed and encouraged the idea of a shrinking human population, a necessity he understood largely because he was a biologist. He was able to tune out political noise and observe humanity as one species amongst many on our planet, all subject to the same basic needs and limits.

Although The Population Bomb is the book with which Ehrlich is most closely identified, his many other books and papers include important works on birds, human ecology, and conservation biology. He was as insightful as he was controversial, and his work deserves continued attention.

In today’s world, where increasingly more political and industrial leaders appear driven by narcissism or profit-centric thinking, we need people like Paul R. Ehrlich. He was a man of his time, and the time for warnings is drawing to an end as the age of consequences dawns.

Paul R. Ehrlich, May 29, 1932 – March 13, 2026.

Sir David Attenborough’s 2011 RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) President’s Lecture remains one of the most defining speeches on the subject of human overpopulation.

Delivering the address to Society members on March 10 2011, and in the presence of the late Duke of Edinburgh, the revered British naturalist explained why human population growth is at the root of almost every environmental problem that exists today.

Claiming ‘sustainable growth’ to be an oxymoron, David Attenborough pointed out there were only two ways the human population would be controlled in the future: “We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so… either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us”.

The naturalist, famous for his award-winning documentaries including Life On Earth and Blue Planet, stated: “All environmental problems become harder – and ultimately impossible – to solve with ever more people”.

Click the video below to watch Sir David Attenborough’s 2011 address to the RSA.

During the lecture, Attenborough added that: “Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it’s time we [should] control the population to allow the survival of the environment”.

Born in 1926, Sir David Attenborough is a British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. His comments on the dangers of human population growth have been echoed by other leading voices on the subject, including Professor Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb.

Writer and environmentalist Jonathon Porritt has spent a large part of his professional life campaigning on the issues of human overpopulation.

In particular, Porritt has been publicly critical of the silence around this sensitive topic, suggesting that even high profile organisations such as The Green Party refuse to speak out about the connection between population growth and environmental degradation.

In July 2023 Porritt published a short essay on his website titled Overpopulation and the End Times: the Silence Continues, in which he launched a scathing attack on such groups.

He also believes that overpopulation has pushed humanity into a perilous phase of its existence on Earth.

Jonathon Porritt has also been an advocate of Yan Vana’s novel The Message, the critically acclaimed book that puts human overpopulation cleverly under the spotlight.

Sir Jonathan Porritt is a leading British environmentalist, a Founder Director of Forum for the Future, as well as former Director of Friends of the Earth.

According to United Nations (UN) figures, there are currently 9 countries with a population growth rate in excess of 3 per cent per annum. These countries are listed below in descending order.

In the case of Tokelau, a remote group of atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, with a population of just 2,634, the actual growth is tiny by comparison to others.

In the case of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a population currently in excess of 113 million, a 3.18 per cent growth rate equates to a significant ongoing surge in the country’s numbers.

It is estimated that by 2050, the DRC’s population could surpass 215 million.

All figures shown are correct at the time of writing.

1. 1. Tokelau, South Pacific: Population – 2,634, annual growth rate – 3.68 per cent.
   2. Oman: Population – 5.546 million, annual growth rate – 3.52 per cent.
   3. Syria: Population – 25.847 million, annual growth rate – 3.51 per cent.
   4. Central African Republic: Population – 5.557 million, annual growth rate – 3.34 per cent.
   5. Somalia: Population – 19.809 million, annual growth rate – 3.28 per cent.
   6. Niger: Population – 28.129 million, annual growth rate – 3.19 per cent.
   7. Democratic Republic of the Congo: Population – 113.681 million, annual growth rate – 3.18 per cent.
   8. Sudan: Population – 51.950 million, annual growth rate – 3.15 per cent.
   9. Mayotte, Indian Ocean: Population – 339,514, annual growth rate – 3.12 per cent.

Actress, film director and model Lily Cole has long been a strong advocate for the environment, as well as being outspoken on the issue of human overpopulation.

In a 2022 interview with Hello! magazine, she was asked what she thought about the idea of people having less children for the sake of the environment.

Cole went further, adding that population growth was only part of the problem and that consumption of resources also needs to be significantly reduced.

Lily Cole is a British model, author, film director, actress and entrepreneur. In 2009 she was listed by Vogue Paris as one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.

Overtourism rallies have erupted across Europe in recent weeks, as locals voice their anger over the increasing volume of holidaymakers visiting their home towns and cities.

Demonstrations have taken place across Spain, Italy, and Portugal, as locals protest that the excessive number of holiday visitors is making town and city centres unusable. Protesters, angry at almost year-round overcrowding, are calling for a curb on mass tourism, saying it has driven locals out of affordable housing and raised their cost of living.

In the last week, anti-mass tourism demonstrations have taken place in Barcelona, where organisers encouraged protestors to make the strength of their feelings known by bringing water pistols to spray at holidaymakers.

Cruise ship companies have also been under fire, with some of the more popular cruise destinations struggling to cope with the volume of passengers disembarking at one time.

With the cruise industry continuing to grow, and single ships capable of carrying up to 7,000 passengers, it appears the problems will only get worse. In Europe, Dubrovnik, Barcelona and Venice are frequently “overwhelmed” by visiting tourists.

PortMiami in Florida, considered the cruise capital of the world, broke all visitor records in February 2025 when it received ten ships in a single day, carrying a total of 68,000 passengers.

The following are the ten busiest cruise ports in the world, which those who prefer less overpopulated holiday destinations may wish to avoid.

1. PortMiami, Florida: 8.23 million cruise passengers per year.
2. Port Canaveral, Florida: 7.60 million cruise passengers per year.
3. Port of Nassau, Bahamas: 5.65 million cruise passengers per year.
4. Port of Cozumel, Mexico: 4.57 million cruise passengers per year.
5. Port Everglades, Florida: 4.01 million cruise passengers per year.
6. Port Barcelona, Spain: 3.66 million cruise passengers per year.
7. Port of Civitavecchia, Italy: 3.46 million cruise passengers per year.
8. Out Islands, Bahamas: 2.55 million cruise passengers per year.
9. Port of Marseille, France: 2.54 million cruise passengers per year.
10. Balearic Islands, Spain: 2.50 million cruise passengers per year.

American actress Jane Fonda has long been outspoken on the issue of human overpopulation.

In 1997, the American grassroots organisation Population Connection, then known as Zero Population Growth (ZPG), honoured Jane Fonda and her then-husband, CNN founder Ted Turner, with a gala in New York City. Both were active within the ZPG movement and Fonda in particular has been candid over the years about the dangers of human population growth.

In a 2011 blog post on her website titled ‘Too Many People’, she wrote about her fear for the future in light of population growth projections:

In October 2019, Jane Fonda created ‘Fire Drill Fridays’ after being inspired by the words and work of climate activist Greta Thunburg.

Vowing to fight for the climate herself, Fonda organised and led weekly protests every Friday on Capitol Hill, demanding that political leaders take action to address the climate emergency the world is facing. In an interview with Marianne Schnall around that time, Fonda spoke about the relationship between population growth and pandemics:

Jane Fonda is an American actress, activist and environmentalist. She is regarded as one of the world’s most influential and inspiring women.

The population of Barcelona has grown by 1 per cent in just over a year, with uninterrupted growth since 2022.

The population of Barcelona, the capital of Spain’s Catalonia region, has reached unprecedented levels. In September last year, the city recorded 1,718,149 inhabitants, marking an all-time high.

The figures were reported by El Periódico newspaper last week and later confirmed by city council sources to the Catalan News Agency (ACN).

Over the course of one year, from September 2023 to September 2024, Barcelona’s population growth was 1 per cent.

Barcelona is Spain’s second most populous city after the capital Madrid.

2024 was officially the first year to pass the 1.5 deg C global warming limit, as overpopulation and human behaviour push the planet towards ‘climate breakdown’.

Despite world leaders vowing a decade ago that they would take the necessary avoidance steps, planet Earth has moved a major step closer to warming more than 1.5 deg C, new data shows.

The European Copernicus climate service, one of the primary global data providers, announced last week that 2024 was the world’s hottest calendar year on record, and the first to pass the symbolic 1.5 deg C threshold.

UN chief António Guterres described the recent run of temperature records as “climate breakdown”.

“We must exit this road to ruin – and we have no time to lose,” said Guterres in his New Year message, calling for countries to slash emissions of planet-warming gases in 2025.

Average global temperatures for 2024 were around 1.6 deg C above those of the pre-industrial period – the time before humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels – according to Copernicus data.

This breaks the previous record set in 2023 by just over 0.1 deg C, and means the last 10 years are now the 10 warmest years ever recorded.

Last year’s heat is predominantly due to continued human population growth, and humanity’s emissions of planet-warming gases, such as carbon dioxide, which are still at record highs.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, told the BBC: “By far and away the largest contribution impacting our climate is greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”

The 1.5C figure has become a powerful symbol in international climate negotiations ever since it was agreed in Paris in 2015, with many of the most vulnerable countries considering it essential for survival.

“It’s not like 1.49 deg C is fine, and 1.51 deg C is the apocalypse,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at US research group Berkeley Earth, told the BBC. “Every tenth of a degree matters and climate impacts get progressively worse the more warming we have.”

In 2024, the world saw prolonged drought in parts of South America, blistering temperatures in west Africa, intense rainfall in central Europe and some particularly strong tropical storms hitting north America and south Asia.

According to the World Weather Attribution group, these events were just some of those made more intense by climate change over the last year.

These new temperature figures were released as Los Angeles has been overwhelmed with destructive wildfires fuelled by high winds and a lack of rain. And while there may be many contributing factors to these uncontrollable wildfires, experts agree that conditions conducive to fires in California are becoming more likely in a warming world.

In 2024 (as of November 30), there have been 24 confirmed weather/climate disaster events in the United States, each with losses exceeding $1 billion.

According to Carbon Brief, 74% of all extreme weather events are made more likely or more severe because of climate change. And in almost all cases, scientists concluded that these extremes were unlikely to have occurred without human influence on global temperatures (human influence being defined as the combined result of human population growth and human behaviour).

These 24 confirmed weather/climate disaster events include:

• 17 severe storm events
• 4 tropical cyclone events
• 1 wildfire event; and
• 2 winter storm events

Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 418 people and had significant economic effects on the areas impacted, with overall damages exceeding $1 billion per event.

The annual average between 1980 and 2023 was 8.5 events (CPI-adjusted). The annual average between 2019 and 2023 was 20.4 events (CPI-adjusted).

A clear indication that destructive weather/climate events are becoming more frequent and more damaging as climate change, driven by human overpopulation, becomes an increasingly bigger threat.

The map below illustrates all 24 events. CLICK TO ENLARGE.