Paul Ehrlich, a professor of population studies at Stanford University, has made a career out of making spectacular predictions that turn out to be spectacularly wrong. Yet, it seems that he will never give up on making alarmist statements about alleged overpopulation.

He gained fame in the late 1960s for his infamous book The Population Bomb. It predicted that, due to overpopulation, hundreds of millions of people were going to starve to death in the 1970s and the world death rate would skyrocket. This, of course, was not true. And it had disastrous consequences. His book inspired mass sterilization campaigns in countries such as India, Mexico, and Indonesia — affecting millions.

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It seems that Ehrlich has learned nothing in the intervening decades. Last month, while giving an interview about his new book, Life, Ehrlich said, “I would not deny anyone the chance to have children ... [But] If you have 10 children, you’re an evil person trying to basically destroy the world.”

Wow. How that thought is the product of the supposedly brilliant mind of a Stanford professor is truly beyond me.

We have seen, over and over again, that population increase does not lead to mass famine or death. There is a reason that life expectancy has risen consistently on every single continent for literally hundreds of years. Between 1770 and 2021, the world’s average life expectancy rose from 28.5 years to 71 years. This is the same time period when the world's population increased from less than three-fourths of a billion to more than 7.5 billion people.

Additionally, the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, also happen to be two of the nations with the most rapidly rising standard of living and fastest growing economies right now. That certainly does not square with Ehrlich’s mistaken ideas.

The Malthusian reality in which Ehrlich believes we are living simply does not exist. Humans have tremendous innovative and adaptive capabilities that are not accounted for when claiming overpopulation will destroy humanity.

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Ironically, though, in the process of allegedly trying to save humanity, Ehrlich is actually doing the opposite. After all, family is one of the most significant sources of meaning and support for people and one of the things driving economic growth is rising population numbers.

It is a good thing very few people actually take Ehrlich's ideas seriously anymore. If this wasn’t the case, then humanity really would be in danger.

Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.