This 13-minute video introduces students to the origins of the public debate on population policy. It includes recent interviews with the activists and experts who first raised awareness in the 1970s with dire predictions of catastrophe unless extreme measures were taken to curb population growth. In clarifying why some of these predictions didn’t come true, the video shows students how the Green Revolution expanded “carrying capacity,” and how some countries have adopted policies to manage population growth. A concise and vivid contextualization of policy debates on population, the video is useful as an introduction to a sequence of lessons on population growth and demographic transition, or as a way of teeing up discussion or debate at the end of the unit.
Population Bomb: The Overpopulation Theory That Fell Flat
In the 1960s, fears of overpopulation sparked talk of population control. So what happened?
Not enough babies are being born to support an aging population in some parts of the world. But decades ago, there seemed to be the opposite problem: a prediction about a future with too many people. The concern then was that a population bomb would tip the world into chaos.
In 1968, the release of Paul Ehrlich’s best-selling book The Population Bomb and his multiple appearances on the “Tonight Show” helped spread fears that our planet could not sustain itself. Population concerns were already percolating, and Americans soon flocked to Ehrlich’s movement, Zero Population Growth, whose mantra on children was “stop at two.”
While many of his forecasts did not come true, they left a legacy that is still with us today. In the end, the story of The Population Bomb sheds a fascinating light on the dangers of prediction and the adaptability of the human race.
View full episodes at PBS.org/RetroReport.
This video was supported in part by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Related: The Unrealized Horrors of Population Explosion by Clyde Haberman
Educators, click below for this video’s accompanying lesson plan and check out our Environmental Education Collection.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive resources related to this video.
Browse through dozens more lesson plans and videos here.
- Lesson plan 1: Human Geography: The Population Bomb
- Read transcript
- Book a producer
- Producer: Kit R. Roane
- Producer: Sarah Weiser