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Title: The Stork and the Plow : The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma by Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, Gretchen C. Daily ISBN: 0-300-07124-8 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00

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Average Customer Rating: 2.25 (8 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: "The Population Bomb" Revisited
Comment: Paul Ehrlich began his doomsaying quest more than 30 years ago with "The Population Bomb" and, with the benefit of hindsight, covers the same ground again with "The Stork and the Plow".

Ehrlich (this time accompanied by his wife, Anne, and Gretchen Daily) admits that his earlier predictions were off the mark and even makes an attempt to address where those earlier predictions went wrong ... and then promptly repeats the same mistakes.

The anecdotes that show the suffering in sub-Saharan Africa are chilling. Such images cannot touch a feeling heart without making a lasting impression. The reasons for the suffering that the author recounts are right there within the body of the work - political upheval, maldistribution, misuse of agricultural capacity and oppressive poverty linked to all three. These problems, however, are treated as secondary to the tried and true "Population Bomb" nonsense.

As in his earlier work, Ehrlich still hasn't grasped the difference between finite resources and FIXED supply and demand. This is both poor science and poor history. The problem is not (even in the smaller framework of sub-Saharan Africa rather than worldwide) that sufficient food cannot be produced to accommodate population growth. It is those very problems that have been dismissed as secondary that prevent enough food from being produced and/or being made available to the people.

He also fails to note what has happened throughout the rest of the world. As these problems have been overcome by human societies across the globe, human misery has been lessened and birthrates (the supposed problem) have declined without intervention from any external source - which is clearly what is being advocated here.

The trends that Ehrlich discusses are not even accurate. Sub-saharan Africa lags behind the rest of the world in almost every category (per capita caloric intake, income, access to clean water and sewage), but that is because these things are improving at a slower pace than elsewhere, NOT because things are getting worse. And this is despite the political unrest that still rears its head across the continent.

The worst thing about this tome is that it risks concentrating efforts on Ehrlich's pet project rather than the real problems in the region.

Rating: 1
Summary: This man is the archetype of Social Parasite
Comment: When will this guy shut up? Never in the history of the planet has someone taken so much pride in making a fool of himself in public. Erlich needs to be forced to fend for himself in the private sector. He would almost certainly starve to death.

Rating: 1
Summary: Julian Simon presents great rebutal to Ehrlich's arguments
Comment: How many times does the old Malthusian argument have to be defeated. If you have never read a Julian Simon book then please read "The Ultimate Resource II". He has been publicly exposing Ehrlichs false predictions for the past 30 years. Malthusian predictions were scary to me when I first heard them, I have been interested in population growth and the limits of the Earth's resousrces since I was in grade school, but Julian Simon thoroughly defeats any arguments for "serious changes" to be made. The wealth that humans create when allowed to trade freely is good for the environment. Mass starvations and environmental disasters occur when totalitarian governmental regulation destroy free markets and property rights...