Paul Ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich commands attention as the provocative author of The Population Bomb, a text President Bartlet wields like a rhetorical blade to eviscerate doomsday prophecies. Bartlet's voice-over skewers Ehrlich's grim forecast of mass starvation engulfing India by the 1980s—a prediction that crumbled under reality's weight—thrusting Ehrlich into the White House narrative as the archetype of apocalyptic overreach. This invocation galvanizes Toby and the staff, forging a bulwark against policy gridlock in AIDS-drug talks, where Ehrlich embodies the peril of fear-driven stasis over bold, evidence-forged action. His shadow lingers as a caution against Malthusian excess in governance.