MEDIA ADVISORY: Paul Ehrlich: Has the "Population Bomb" Finally Exploded?

WASHINGTON—Forty years after his seminal book The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich is again stirring debate over the connections between population growth and environmental degradation. His latest book, The Dominant Animal, coauthored by Anne Ehrlich, traces the interplay between environmental change and evolution.

Human beings have developed vibrant cultures and vast scientific knowledge, but at the same time, they have cleared forests, changed Earth's climate, and perhaps undermined their own supremacy. "In many ways, the situation is far worse today than I could have imagined when I wrote The Population Bomb," says Ehrlich. "We, as the dominant animal, have so altered the environment and so damaged our life-support systems, that the stresses on the living world are similar to those produced by a meteor strike." The Dominant Animal argues that the key to adapting to our new reality may be learning from our evolutionary past.

Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University, is an expert on evolution, ecology, and human biology. Ehrlich has written more than 900 scientific papers and popular articles and more than 40 books, including The Population Bomb, The Process of Evolution, The Science of Ecology, and Human Natures.

On September 18 at 3:00 p.m., ECSP will sponsor the launch of The Dominant Animal at the Woodrow Wilson Center; copies will be available for purchase. A reception will follow at 4:30 p.m.

The event will be webcast live at www.wilsoncenter.org.
Submit questions for Paul Ehrlich to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org.

RSVP/Live Webcast.

What: Book Launch of The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment

Who: Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University

When: Thursday, September 18, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Reception to follow.

Where: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 6th Floor Flom Auditorium
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds, engaged in the study of national and world affairs.

Since 1994, the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program has explored the connections among environmental challenges and their links to conflict and security.