Paul+R.+Ehrlich

Adam's Part Who were Who was Paul R Ehrlich and why is his name associated with the notion of a "dominant social paradigm?" Paul Ralph Ehrlich is an American Biologist and Educator who is the Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and president of Standford's Center for Conservative Biology. Ehrlich is best known for his incorrect predictions about population growth. He is also known for his famous bet that he made with economist Julian Simon, a bet about the trend of prices for certain metals, that was made in 1980, in which Ehrlich lost the bet.

Ehrlich first argued, through his book, //The Population Bomb//, that the human population was too high already, and that while the level of disaster could be mitigated, humanity could not prevent severe famines, the spread of disease, social unrest, and other negative consequences of overpopulation. However, he argued that societies must take strong action to curb population growth in order to mitigate future disasters both ecological and social. Over time his views have changed and evolved. However, Ehrlich has always maintained his support for government intervention into population control.

In //The Population Bomb//, Ehrlich stated, "We must have population control at home, hopefully through a system of incentives and penalties, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail. We must use our political power to push other countries into programs which combine agricultural development and population control."

For these reasons and more Paul R Ehrlich is associated with the the "Dominant Social Paradigm". The issue overpopulation has long been a problem its not something of the last have century, this has been a problem for the last century. Because of this over population, world hunger is an extreme problem, and this is causing a massive increase in poverty as well.