Population Expert Paul R. Ehrlich to Speak at Colorado State University

Note to Reporters: A photo of Paul Ehrlich is available with this release at news.colostate.edu

Paul R. Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies in the Department of Biology and president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, will speak at a free public lecture, Feb. 17, 5-6 p.m., at the Griffin Concert Hall in the University Center for the Arts, 1400 Remington St., Fort Collins.

Ehrlich’s lecture is sponsored by the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University.

The topic of his lecture will be "Can a Collapse of Global Civilization be Avoided?" Tickets are not needed and seating is on a first-come first-served basis.

Ehrlich notes that although in the past, numerous civilizations collapsed due to environmental problems, now, for the first time, we are faced with a global collapse due to multiple drivers — overpopulation, over consumption by the rich, poor choices of technologies, etc. He suggests that a dramatic cultural change is needed for averting calamity.

Ehrlich, a well-known biologist and co-founder of the field of coevolution, has been a pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation, resources, and the environment. His research group’s policy research on the population-resource-environment crisis takes a broad overview of the world situation.

Butterflies and Biodiversity

Ehrlich, an entomologist, has pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics, and genetics of natural butterfly populations. A central focus of his research group is investigating ways that human-disturbed landscapes can be made more hospitable to biodiversity.

Ehrlich has long been concerned that humanity should treat the Earth as a spaceship with limited resources and a heavily burdened life-support system; otherwise, he feared, “mankind will breed itself into oblivion.” His 1968 book, The Population Bomb, was a distillation of his many articles and lectures on the subject.

Ehrlich is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards including the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in areas where the Nobel Prize is not awarded), the 1998 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and in 1999, the Blue Planet Prize.

Ehrlich is heavily involved in the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere and is author and coauthor of more than 1,000 scientific papers and articles in the popular press and over 40 books.

He earned his bachelor’s in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kansas. In addition to his Stanford position, he is also an adjunct professor at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

For questions regarding this lecture, contact Allison Burford, the School of Global Environmental Sustainability administrative and event coordinator, by email at soges_frontdesk@colostate.edu or call (970) 492-4215.
 

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