Anne H. Ehrlich facts for kids

Anne Howland Ehrlich (born November 17, 1933) is an American scientist and writer. She is famous for her work on environmental issues, especially about how human population growth affects our planet. She often writes with her husband, Paul R. Ehrlich.

She has written or helped write over 30 books about how many people live on Earth (called overpopulation) and how living things interact with their environment (called ecology). Some of her well-known books include The Stork and the Plow (1995) and The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment (2008). She also writes a lot about important topics like protecting the environment and the effects of nuclear war.

Many people see her as a key thinker in the field of conservation biology. Her main idea is that if the human population keeps growing without limits, and if we use natural resources without rules, it will seriously harm our environment. Her writings have inspired many, including the Club of Rome. By 1993, her and Paul Ehrlich's views were widely accepted by scientists, as shown in the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity."

Anne Ehrlich helped start the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University with Paul Ehrlich. She works there as a policy coordinator and was an associate director before that. She also advised the White House on environmental issues for the Global 2000 Report in 1980.

She is now a senior research scientist emeritus in conservation biology at Stanford University.

Her Journey as a Scientist

From 1952 to 1955, Anne Ehrlich studied at the University of Kansas. She did scientific research on how populations grow and change, and she published many articles. In the late 1950s, she began working with Paul Ehrlich. They studied butterflies to answer big questions about how living things are classified, how they live in their environment, and how they change over time.

Since 1987, Anne Ehrlich has been an associate director and policy coordinator at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University.

In 1994, she and Paul Ehrlich received the United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize. In 1995, they also won the first Annual Heinz Award for their work in the Environment.

From 1994 to 1995, she was part of a group of academics and scientists for the President's Commission on Sustainable Development.

She has served on the boards of many organizations, including Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club. She also led the Sierra Club's Committee on Military Impacts on the Environment for many years.

Anne Ehrlich is involved in the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB). She helped start this project with her husband Paul and Professor Donald Kennedy.

Starting in 1994, she wrote a series of newsletters called "Ecofables/Ecoscience." In these, she used science to correct common misunderstandings about how humans interact with the environment.

Her Life Story

Anne Ehrlich was born in Des Moines, Iowa. As a child, she loved nature and spent a lot of time outdoors learning about wildflowers and geography. When she was a teenager, she read a book called Our Plundered Planet by Henry Fairfield Osborn. This book made her think deeply about how humans were not taking good care of Earth and were causing environmental damage.

She married Paul R. Ehrlich in 1954. They have one daughter, Lisa, who was born in 1955. Their book The Population Bomb is dedicated to Lisa, and The Population Explosion is dedicated to their grandchildren.

Important Books and Ideas

The Population Bomb (1968)

The idea of a "population bomb" was first used by a businessman named Hugh Moore in 1958. Anne and Paul Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb started with a strong statement:

"The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate ..."

The Ehrlichs believed that there were too many people on Earth. They argued that even though we could try to lessen the problems, humanity would still face severe food shortages, the spread of diseases, social problems, and other bad effects from overpopulation.

By the end of the 1970s, some of these specific predictions did not come true. However, the Ehrlichs continued to argue that societies must act strongly to slow down population growth. They believed this was necessary to prevent future environmental and social disasters.

The Population Explosion (1990)

In this follow-up to The Population Bomb, the Ehrlichs explained how the world's growing population was becoming too large for Earth to support everyone's way of life. They argued that overpopulation was the number one environmental problem. The book called for action to deal with population growth and the problems it causes:

"When is an area overpopulated? When its population can't be maintained without rapidly depleting nonrenewable resources (or converting renewable resources into nonrenewable ones) and without degrading the capacity of the environment to support the population. In short, if the long-term carrying capacity of an area is clearly being degraded by its current human occupants, that area is overpopulated."

While the Ehrlichs agreed that how much we consume and the types of technology we use also cause environmental problems, they felt that controlling population growth should be the main focus to stop further damage. They stated that "Rapid population growth in poor nations is an important reason they stay poor, and overpopulation in those nations will greatly increase their destructive impact on the environment as they struggle to develop."

The Stork and the Plow (1995)

This book, written with Gretchen Daily, explains how poverty can force people to use natural resources in ways that are not sustainable. It also offers ideas on how food production could keep up with population growth. The authors look at how population and food supply affect each other. They suggest ways to balance the number of people with the need for food. Their ideas include improving the lives of women by giving them equal education, reducing unfair treatment based on race or religion, changing farming systems, and closing the gap between rich and poor.

This generation faces a set of challenges unprecedented in their scope and severity and in the shortness of time left to resolve them. . . . The Stork and the Plow sets these out thoughtfully [and] accurately. . . . We can all hope this urgent message is carefully heeded.

The Dominant Animal (2008)

In this popular book, the Ehrlichs explore how humans have changed over time. We started as vulnerable creatures trying to find food from Earth. Now, we are a complex global society that influences almost every part of the planet. They call humans "the dominant animal." They ask why we are creating a world that threatens our own species and offer ideas on how we can change our current path.

Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided? (2013)

This report reminds us that in the past, many civilizations collapsed because they damaged nature. It suggests that this process is now making a global collapse seem likely. Too many people, too much consumption by wealthy people, and bad technology choices are major reasons for this. The report suggests that big changes in our culture offer the main hope of avoiding a disaster.

Awards and Recognitions

• Raymond B. Bragg Award for Distinguished Service, Honorary Life Member, 1985
• Named to Global 500 Roll of Honour for Environmental Achievement, United Nations, 1989
• Honorary Degree Doctor of Law, Bethany College, 1990
• The United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize (with Paul R. Ehrlich and M.S. Swaminathan), 1994
• The 1st Annual Heinz Award in the Environment (with Paul Ehrlich), 1995
• Nuclear Age Peace Award (with Paul Ehrlich) from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 1996
• 1998 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (with Paul Ehrlich) - This award recognized their important scientific work in understanding how species extinction, habitat destruction, and nuclear war affect the environment. It also honored them for raising public awareness and shaping opinions on resource depletion and environmental damage.
• Fellow of the American Academy Arts & Sciences, California Academy of Sciences (honorary)
• Honorary Doctorate of Oregon State University, 1999

See Also

• Paul R. Ehrlich
• Ecosystem valuation