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Quote by Paul R. Ehrlich

“Organisms are starting to move in response to climate change all over the place. Bees are disappearing and we don't have many of the native pollinators left to replace them. We're in deep trouble; there's no question about it. But ecologists tend to think of something that's going to be bad in ten years as very fast, and of course, politicians only think of things in a two-, four-, six-year cycle.”

Quote by Paul R. Ehrlich

Author

Paul R. Ehrlich

Paul R. Ehrlich is a renowned population biologist known for his research on population ecology and biodiversity. Born on May 29, 1932, he is an advocate for the issues of population explosion and biodiversity, authoring the influential book 'The Population Bomb.' His work has had a profound impact on global environmental issues. more

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“Historically, things were moving in a pretty good direction until the Reagan presidency. And then it all got reversed. The Mexico City policy was instituted - the idea of wrecking the environment for this generation's profit and forgetting about our gets got firmly embedded. I'm sad to say the Clinton administration didn't turn it around and the Bush administration, well, I think they're the worst administration we've ever had, and I used to be a Republican.”

“My first policy move would be to try to get a conversation going in the US about what people stand for and what we really want. Do we want to keep adding people to the world and to our country until we move to a battery-chicken kind of existence and then collapse? Or do we want to think hard about what really is valuable to us, and figure out how many people we can supply that to sustainably?”

People Thinking World Want Trying Firsts Kind Country Hard Would Be Moving Existence Figures Policy Conversation Valuable Our Country Chickens Collapse Batteries

Author:Paul R. Ehrlich

“I don't think scientists can dictate from above what we should do, because it's not a matter of scientific decision. If you want to have everybody living like a Beverly Hills millionaire, then 2 billion people might be too many. If we want to have a battery-chicken kind of world, with everybody having an absolute minimum diet, you might be able to support 10 billion.”

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“People have to decide, first of all, how they'd like to live, and how secure they want to be from disaster. After that, scientists can help determine what would be necessary to achieve that.”

People Want Firsts Helping Would Be Achieve Scientist Determine Disaster Secure

Author:Paul R. Ehrlich

“All scientists who've looked at it know we have to phase away from burning fossil fuels. That means we've got to put a lot of effort into alternate energy technologies, but we're still subsidizing fossil fuels and not subsidizing most of the alternatives. It's not going to be an easy transition.”

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Author:Paul R. Ehrlich

“Sometimes I think the Congress feels that if you only decided tomorrow to switch to wind power that in two years we'd be getting 80 percent of our electricity from wind power. It's nonsense. Normally it takes 20 to 30 years after a new technology is demonstrated and deployed before it powers even 15 or 20 percent of the grid. There's this long lag time, and we haven't even decided which directions to go.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Years Long Two Sometimes Technology Havens Wind Tomorrow Percent Decided Congress Nonsense Two Years Electricity New Technology Grids Lag Wind Power

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“Chinese are already more on board than we are. China is the only country that actually discussed in formal government documents how important it is to control the size of your populations if you’re going to limit emissions.”

Ifs Important Country Government Limits Size Population China Chinese Boards Documents Formal Emissions

Author:Paul R. Ehrlich

“People have not made the connection that the more of us there are, the more greenhouse gases go into the atmosphere. The Chinese have. They, unlike us, have a population policy. The right wingers just don't understand that the country they're in is probably the most overpopulated in the world, the one doing most of the destruction, and the one with horrendously bad leadership.”

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Author:Paul R. Ehrlich

“I kind of like carbon taxes because we already know how to apply them. We already have apparatus in place. When we talk about these other solutions - like a billion tons of iron filings in the ocean or putting sunshades between us and the sun - they're huge. We have no idea if they will work. We have no idea what their nasty consequences might be. And it's unlikely we can do them anyway.”

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Author:Paul R. Ehrlich

“With taxes, if they aren't working right, we can change them with a stroke of the pen. It's basically a market-type mechanism. People make their own choices. You run the taxes, and you get the results.”

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Author:Paul R. Ehrlich