“A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.” Paul Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, “Population, Resources, Environment” (W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1970, 323) This quote has also been attributed to John Holdren, Erlich’s co-author, who now works with Obama in the White House.
Back in ’69 I was hired by an ad agency to write a series of 5-minute radio spots promoting a “green” planned community. It was a blue sky real estate development in an area of essentially godforsaken desert wasteland. As I recall it was the year of the first Earth Day and I confess I was on the doom-and-gloom Eco bandwagon at the time. The coming Earthly disaster caused by human overpopulation and waste of natural resources was the promotional angle the development’s promoters wanted me to emphasize.
Erhlich’s “Population Bomb” had just been released and I’d read it with great interest. I felt that using some episodes from his book in the radio series would be just the thing to dramatize the ecological urgency of planned communities. So I phoned him to ask permission to use various quotes, expecting an easy go-ahead.
Instead of granting permission, his voice became masked and he went into total bargaining mode. We did a little verbal dance and it quickly became clear he wanted money, and a lot of it. So much for the idealistic academic concerned about the fate of humanity and de-development! He was in it for big bucks.
That was my awakening. I didn’t use any Ehrlich quotes and the project eventually fizzled out due to lack of investor interest. But I gained a lasting insight into what really makes the Erhrlichs, Gores and other enviro-zealots tick.