Ecomusicology: Bridging the Sciences, Arts, and Humanities

Paul Ehrlich is a key figure in modern environmental studies. In addition to ecological research, Ehrlich is known for his warnings about human overpopulation (Ehrlich, 1968). In the 1970s, he made a well-known wager with economist Julian Simon: Ehrlich contended that natural resource prices would increase continually during the 1980s, indicating increased scarcity and human suffering brought about by overpopulation, while Simon believed that prices would decline. Ehrlich was a good sport, and because his neo-Malthusian concerns lost to Simon's cornucopianism, he paid up and admitted he was wrong—but he was wrong only for that decade. Considering a longer time scale, from 1900 to 2008, we see that Ehrlich's perspicacious concerns were indeed correct (Kiel, Matheson, & Golembiewski, 2010). In the inaugural edition of the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Ehrlich (2011) provided his “personal view” of environmental education. Considering his role as an important and respected environmental thinker and leader, and given the presentation of his ideas in such an auspicious forum, Ehrlich's advice merits our consideration.