30 THE AUDUBON BUD ie 
BOOK REVIEWS 
THE POPULATION BOMB. By Paul Ehrlich. 220 pages, Ballantine 
Books about population problems usually are written by experts wh 
language cannot be understood, by the layman, or by reporters wh 
efforts to “tell it like it is” suffer from a lack of knowledge. 
Paul Ehrlich’s THE POPULATION BOMB suffers none of these lial 
ties. As director of graduate study for the department of biological sciex 
at Stanford University, Dr. Ehrlich has written several books and ove 
technical papers. He represents that new breed of scientist whose techn 
competence has been overlaid with human compassion. His is not 
dispirited and pedantic pulp belched forth with such monotonous regu 
ity by the scholarly establishment. Ehrlich is a hard-nosed scientist, 
he recognizes, as many scientists apparently do not, that facts do not sp 
for themselves; they must be interpreted. Rather than copping out, as n 
scientists do by pleading their neutrality, Ehrlich displays the sort of 
common courage which may well be our only salvation. 
The facile optimist who relies on science to save us will find | 
comfort in this book. For the author builds a compelling case against 
such verdict. Few institutions or interest groups escape his righteous 
dignation. He indicts the “health syndicate” in American biology for 
preoccupation with death control and its neglect of birth control. In 
criminate uses of pesticides are blamed for the “great Mississippi fish } 
and for destroying the natural balance of living things. Our oceans 
lakes are turned into open sewers by irresponsible industries and ini 
quate regulations. 
It is appalling to learn that, “in 1956 the city of Omaha, Nebra 
dumped 300,000 pounds of untreated pauch manure (undigested stom 
contents) into the Missouri River.” Ehrlich also accuses the Food and L 
Administration of yielding to industrial pressure to raise the DDT tc 
ance level for milk fed to babies. The author shatters the illusion 
great areas of tropical forests can be transformed into productive acre 
And he challenges the assumption that desalting ocean water can sig! 
cantly increase water available for farming and industrial use. The wis 
thinking that excess population could be transported to other planets 
spaceship is also shown to be impossible. The staggering engineering 
financial problems involved in such a project are only the most obv 
limitations. The author calculates that a mere 50 years would be requ 
to populate Venus, Mercury, Mars, the moon and moons of Jupiter 
Saturn to the present density of Earth. 
Doubling time of the world’s population has declined from over | 
years to only 37 years as a result of what Ehrlich calls “instant di 
control,” exported to underdeveloped countries by developed (West 
ones. Birth control efforts on the other hand have been severely limitec 
religious and political timidity. The rhythm method sanctioned by 
Catholic Church is labeled, “Vatican roulette,” and the ignorance | 
shortsightedness which shrouds political actions in this field are sha’ 
criticized. | 
The author’s summation of all evidence bearing on the popula 
problem is stated in the prologue: “The battle to feed all of humanit 
