You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins.

That's me.

On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy,

the environment, and our society.

Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the

bird's eye view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we

can do about it as a society and as individuals.

For most people paying attention to ecology, planetary limits, and sustainability, this

week's guest needs no introduction.

Paul Ehrlich is a retired conservation biologist from Stanford University, who famously,

or infamously, depending on the reader, wrote the book, The Population Bomb in 1968.

In this episode, I talked to Paul about what has happened both to human population

situation, as well as awareness and mitigation of it since he wrote his book 50 years ago.

Our discussion ranges from his appearances on Johnny Carson to why humanity is not responded to our long-term sustainability challenges.

As usual, Paul, approaching 90, offers colorful and interesting commentary on the human predicament.

I hope you enjoy the conversation and perhaps gain some insights.

Music I hope you enjoy the conversation and perhaps gain some insights. I have lots of questions for you, lots of thoughts on the issue of population. But let me just

give a bit of context. So you were born in 1932 when the world population was approximately

two billion people. You wrote your book, The Population Bomb in 1968, when we were roughly three and a half billion

people.

And now, at the current growth rate of around 81 million humans per year, we will cross

eight billion humans sometime near the end of 2023.

...