Letters

Letters

, Feb 28, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

Science part of sustainability

To the Editor:

Letter writer Linda Johansen wants us to believe her letter in the Feb. 21 Tidings, “Population control not part of sustainability” is true.

But sustainability is actually about how long ecological support systems can be productive, and science has determined that in the past societies have died out due to population growth related environmental collapse.

Here is a scientific view. After evaluating recent population trends and world-wide measures to produce food and fiber, scientists of the Royal Society and the U.S. Academy of Sciences issued a joint statement: “None of these measures will be sufficient to ensure adequate food supplies for future generations unless the growth in the human population is simultaneously curtailed.”

They also noted that the optimum population for the world would be about one-third of its current level.

Here is a non-scientific dogmatic view.

Linda wants us to “imagine the world’s people as a field of beautiful daisies” and tells us that we will learn about population issues from the Population Research Institute.

Not hardly. The institute is actually a pro-life group that wants us to believe family planning is a human rights abuse, that overpopulation is a myth and there are not enough women in Asia. The president of the institute gives speeches about “promoting and protecting the large family.”

John Kovash

West Linn

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