---
title: "Ehrlich was a monster, and the world is better off now that he's dead."
date: 2026-03-16
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships added a new photo.
---

# Ehrlich was a monster, and the world is better off now that he's dead.

*March 16, 2026 · Facebook*

Ehrlich was a monster, and the world is better off now that he\'s dead.\
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Despite advocating for many authoritarian policies (adding sterility drugs to the water supply, forced sterilization of men and women, mandatory government imposed family size limits), Ehrlich was widely lionized by the media. For example, he appeared 18 times on the Johnny Carson show, one of the most watched TV shows in history.\
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Yet he was never held accountable for his many failed predictions, or the authoritarian policies he helped promote.\
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\"Claim 1: Demanded that the FCC require TV shows to depict large families in a negative light, so that parents with multiple children would be shamed and ostracized by society.\
In a 1970 television appearance, Ehrlich stated: \"The FCC should see to it that large families are always treated in a negative light on television.\" He added that if this approach failed, the government should \"legislate the size of the family\" and \"throw you in jail if you have too many\" children. This was part of his advocacy for using media to promote population control and discourage larger families.\
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In The Population Bomb (1968), Ehrlich discussed using media to influence family size perceptions: \"Assail series featuring large families; demand prime-time programs on sex education, contraceptives; \... complain about positive large-family treatment; attack \'mothers of the year\' publicity unless ≤2 children or adoptive; request no ads implying \>2 children acceptable.\"\
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Claim 2: Proposed forcibly sterilizing millions of Americans by poisoning the water supply to make them infertile. He couldn’t think of a drug to do it “safely,� but wanted to do it anyway.\
In The Population Bomb (1968), Ehrlich floated the idea: \"One plan often mentioned involves the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size.\" He noted it was impractical due to the \"criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area\" and technical challenges (e.g., the substance must not affect livestock and must work equally on both sexes with minimal side effects), but deemed it a potential option if voluntary measures failed, warning that without such controls, \"catastrophe will result.\"\
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In Ecoscience (1977, co-authored with Anne Ehrlich and John Holdren), he revisited the concept: adding sterilants \"to drinking water or staple foods,\" with the government rationing antidotes. The book also supported \"a program of sterilizing women after their second or third child\" and involuntary mass semi-sterilization to \"reduce fertility by adjustable amounts, anywhere from 5 to 75 percent, rather than to sterilize the whole population completely.\"\
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Claim 3: Supported actual forced sterilization campaigns in India.\
In The Population Bomb (1968), Ehrlich expressed support for coercive measures in India: \"Talk of compulsory sterilization for Indian males with three or more children.\" He called such radical approaches \"coercion in a good cause\" and recommended U.S. support, including logistics like helicopters, vehicles, instruments, and training, tied to food aid.\
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Ehrlich later stated he \"strongly supported population-control measures like sterilization\" and argued the U.S. should pressure governments to launch vasectomy campaigns, though he disavowed the brutality of India\'s 1970s-80s programs (which involved requiring sterilization for access to water, electricity, ration cards, medical care, and pay raises).\"

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