Five pages into last Thursday’s paper (July 30) were a few paragraphs about our burgeoning global population (“U.N. foresees unabated population explosion”).
“The world’s population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050 … there should be 11.2 billion people on Earth by the end of this century,” The Associated Press reported.
Quoth John Wilmoth, director of the population division of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs: “While the global projections should not be cause for alarm … .”
“Should not be cause for alarm”? Well, when should we become alarmed? When we hit 20 billion, 50 billion? How many is too many?
By what unrealistic standard does Mr. Wilmoth not judge that there are already more people than the Earth can sustain while still maintaining some semblance of environmental integrity?
If global population projections are not a cause for alarm, the level of denial at the U.N. surely is.
Kurt Woltersdorf
Sanford
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