Paul Ehrlich returns to his seminal work “The Population Bomb” to discuss cultural v. technological evolution, discusses his recent work with the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB), and speaks to the nature of environmental rhetoric.
[audio:http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Ehrlich-Paul.mp3|titles=Paul Ehrlich & Jenny]
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Contributor

Paul R. Ehrlich
Paul R. Ehrlich received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Co-founder with Peter H. Raven of the field of coevolution, he has pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics, and genetics of natural butterfly populations. He has also been a pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation, and in raising issues of population, resources, and the environment as matters of public policy. A special interest of Ehrlich’s is cultural evolution, especially with respect to environmental ethics, and he is deeply involved in the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB) which he co-founded with his wife Anne (policy coordinator of the CCB) and Professor Donald Kennedy. Professor Ehrlich has received several honorary degrees, the John Muir Award of the Sierra Club, the Gold Medal Award of the World Wildlife Fund International, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in lieu of a Nobel Prize in areas where the Nobel is not given), in 1993 the Volvo Environmental Prize, in 1994 the United Nations’ Sasakawa Environment Prize, in 1995 the Heinz Award for the Environment, in 1998 the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, in 1999 the Blue Planet Prize, in 2001 the Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and in 2009 the Margalef Prize in Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

Interviewer

Jenny Rempel
Jenny Rempel is a senior Earth Systems major and Human Biology minor with a love of good food, good travel and the great outdoors. Her interest in the Anthropocene stems from these very pleasures: from exploring the injustices of current food systems to studying the potential for ecotourism in Galapagos to analyzing national land conservation trends, Jenny is determined to help shape this new geological era for the better. Having grown up in Fresno, California, Jenny is particularly fond of issues at the confluence of conservation biology and sustainable agriculture.  She spent the summer of 2009 at a high-elevation field site in Colorado studying the population dynamics of a montane butterfly species, and last summer she worked with Prof. Tad Fukami to investigate the effects of removing invasive species from forest fragments. As a NOAA Hollings Scholar, Jenny is currently working with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center to study the effects of ocean acidification on marine crustaceans. While on campus, Jenny enjoys growing, cooking and eating food at the Stanford Community Farm. She serves as a co-founder and leader of the Stanford Farm Project and she organizes the Environmental Faculty Dinner Series.  In the past year, Jenny has backpacked, swam, skied, snowshoed, hiked or camped in ten different national parks. She can’t wait to get back outside – where her thoughts on the Anthropocene were first formed!