Sunday’s editorial, “Time’s up for climate change deniers,” left
out something very important: overpopulation. As Walt Kelly’s
cartoon character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is
us.” Climate change, like many other problems — flooding, water
shortages, pollution, hunger, deforestation, mass extinctions,
infrastructure deterioration, traffic jams, crowded beaches — is
related to overpopulation. According to the nonprofit
organization Population Connection, Earth accumulated a billion
of “us” by 1804. By 1927, 123 years later, “us” doubled to 2
billion. We redoubled to 4 billion by 1974. We grew another 2
billion the next 25 years. Between 1999 and 2011 — just 12 years
— our population grew another full billion. Between 1927 and
2011 — despite mass loss of life caused by such events as World
War II, the AIDS epidemic and ethnic cleansing including the
Nazi death camps — world population grew exponentially. What if
that continued? How can world leaders hope to fix problems such
as climate change if t