{"id":21002,"date":"2026-06-27T20:09:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/?p=21002"},"modified":"2026-06-28T12:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:19:24","slug":"npr-over-population-bad-now-population-decline-is-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2026\/06\/27\/npr-over-population-bad-now-population-decline-is-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR: Over population bad, now population decline is bad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NPR basically advocates for opening the immigration spigot. The problem is the population decline is nearly world wide – and there will not be sufficient numbers of people willing to immigrate to other countries to fill local labor needs, particularly as economic strength continues to grow throughout the world. Immigration is at best, a temporary solution – and only for a few countries that may attract migrant workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Portions AI generated)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NPR in the Past – Historical Coverage of Overpopulation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the late 1960s and 1970s,\u00a0NPR<\/strong>\u00a0and other major media outlets frequently featured\u00a0Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford biologist whose 1968 book\u00a0The Population Bomb<\/em>\u00a0warned that rapid global population growth would lead to mass starvation, resource depletion, and societal collapse.\u00a0\u00a0Ehrlich appeared numerous times on national television and radio, including\u00a0NPR\u00a0programs, advocating for urgent population control measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Paul Ehrlich’s Influence<\/strong>: Ehrlich argued that the Earth had finite resources and could not sustain infinite population growth. He suggested drastic measures, including compulsory sterilization and taxes on children, if voluntary methods failed to curb birth rates.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Media Amplification<\/strong>: During this era, the media, including\u00a0NPR<\/strong>, played a significant role in amplifying these warnings, reflecting widespread anxiety about overpopulation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    NPR Promoted Ehrlich – Who was Wrong About Everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Paul Ehrlich\u2019s specific predictions of imminent population catastrophe were largely inaccurate.<\/strong> While he correctly identified that rapid population growth posed challenges, his timelines and worst-case scenarios failed to materialize due to human innovation and changing demographic trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Key Failures in Prediction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Mass Starvation:<\/strong> Ehrlich famously predicted in his 1968 book The Population Bomb<\/em> that hundreds of millions would starve to death in the 1970s and that the “battle to feed all of humanity is over.” In reality, global food production increased dramatically due to the Green Revolution, and the percentage of undernourished people dropped from roughly 37% in the late 1960s to about 8% by 2024.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Resource Depletion:<\/strong> He forecast essential resources would run out, leading to societal collapse. For example, he claimed that by 1984, Americans would be “dying of thirst” and that all important animal life in the sea would be extinct within a decade. Neither occurred; life expectancy rose, and marine life, while threatened, did not vanish.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The Simon-Ehrlich Wager:<\/strong> In a famous 1980 bet, Ehrlich wagered that the prices of five metals (copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten) would rise due to scarcity. Economist Julian Simon bet they would fall. By 1990, the inflation-adjusted prices of all five metals had dropped, and Ehrlich lost the bet, paying Simon nearly $600.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Historians and economists generally view Ehrlich\u2019s specific doomsday timelines as wrong. The catastrophic famines and resource wars he predicted for the late 20th century did not happen. Instead, global prosperity increased alongside population growth, driven by agricultural technology and market efficiencies that Ehrlich had discounted. However, his work successfully galvanized the modern environmental movement and brought attention to the finite nature of Earth’s resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      NPR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      NPR went from overpopulation bad and scary to lower birth rates and less immigration and less population is bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      NPR can’t make up its mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,357,359,17,29,30,352],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assertion","category-daily-doomer","category-everything-is-awful","category-facts","category-media","category-media-propaganda","category-misinformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21015,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21002\/revisions\/21015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}