President's Note, June 2026
Written by John Seager, President and CEO | Published: June 8, 2026
Paul Ehrlich, our co-founder who passed away on March 13 at the age of 93, had an extraordinary impact on our living planet. His career was defined by prolific academic output and a steadfast commitment to sounding alarms about the human predicament. While he gained immense fame — and notoriety — from The Population Bomb (co-authored with his wife, Anne Ehrlich), his work spanned disciplines from entomology to the social foundations of prejudice. Published in 1968, The Population Bomb became a cultural phenomenon. Its success was bolstered by Ehrlich’s frequent appearances as a provocative guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Ehrlich never minced words regarding looming global cataclysms. While critics assert that some of his most dire predictions of massive global famine in the 1970s did not materialize, it must be noted that he was a scientist, not a soothsayer. During the years he developed the thesis for The Population Bomb, nations such as India were indeed on the brink of starvation. Famine was substantially averted by the Green Revolution, led by Norman Borlaug, who warned during his 1970 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, “[T]he frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the Green Revolution will be ephemeral only.”
In his later years, Ehrlich described a transition from a “bomb of numbers” to a “bomb of consumption.” He argued that the Green Revolution merely “defused” the immediate threat with fossil fuels and industrial chemistry, essentially trading a short-term food crisis for a long-term climate crisis. He often quipped, “We didn’t solve the population problem; we just financed it with a credit card issued by the atmosphere.”
When asked during a 2023 60 Minutes interview about charges that he was an alarmist, Ehrlich responded, “I was alarmed. I am still alarmed. All of my colleagues are alarmed.”
At Population Connection, we know that we must carry forward by raising the alarm on behalf of both people and the planet.
We send our condolences to Paul Ehrlich’s family, friends, and countless colleagues.
Remembering Catherine Cameron (1949–2026)
Catherine exhibited a lifelong commitment to population stabilization and reproductive health. She served on our board and held leadership roles in several other population and family planning organizations. She played a significant role in the funding and promotion of the first emergency contraceptive pill, Plan B. Equipped with a sharp sense of humor, Catherine was a great friend — smart, insightful, and dedicated to a better, safer, more equitable world for all. We will miss her.
Email John at jseager@populationconnection.org