"Crazy Uncle": John Holdren

The O's "Science Adviser"-nominee has taken a number of disturbing (or just plain crazy) positions.

Jeff Jacoby (quoted by The Warrior) has a few questions for him. Of those, the one which is most significant is this one:

You have advocated the “long-term desirability of zero population growth” for the United States. In 1973, you pronounced the US population of 210 million as “too many” and warned that “280 million in 2040 is likely to be much too many.” The US population today is 304 million. Are there too many Americans?

His Malthusian-Enthusiasm is consistent, anyway:

You were long associated with population alarmist Paul Ehrlich, and joined him in predicting disasters that never came to pass. For example, you and Ehrlich wrote in 1969: “It cannot be emphasized enough that if . . . population control measures are not initiated immediately and effectively, all the technology man can bring to bear will not fend off the misery to come.” In 1971, the two of you were adamant that “some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the century.” In the 1980s, Ehrlich quoted your expectation that “carbon dioxide-induced famines could kill as many as a billion people before the year 2020.” What have you learned from the failure of these prophecies to come true?

Judging by the rest of Jacoby's piece, it's not likely that Holdren learned anything.

Just what we need in a "Science Adviser."