And Baby Makes Seven Billion

Thanks to John Rohe for this letter, which he sent in response to the article below in the Wall Street Journal.  See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203804204577016353001653214.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLEThirdBucket

Preferably, William McGurn (“And Baby Makes Seven Billion,” Main Street, Oct. 25) will find a less fragile planet on which to practice his “the more the merrier” delusion. Paul Ehrlich was only wrong in underestimating the human grief occasioned by our human tsunami (currently, births minus deaths exceed 227,000 daily). By crushing more people into a phone booth, perhaps one of them will have the intelligence to solve overpopulation. Let’s not needlessly subject the planet to this intrepid wager.

John F. Rohe

Colcom Foundation

Pittsburgh

Here’s the article that generated John’s response.  See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576651391038917246.html

And Baby Makes Seven Billion

Human beings are minds, not mouths.

BY WILLIAM MCGURN

Nothing brings out the inner Malthus like a newborn baby.

That’s especially true when that baby is born to a mother somewhere in Africa or Asia. According to the United Nations Population Fund, some time this coming Monday, probably in India, the world will welcome its seven billionth person. Well, maybe welcome isn’t exactly the right word.

At Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs tells CNN “the consequences for humanity could be grim.” Earlier this year, a New York Times columnist declared “the earth is full,” suggesting that a growing population means “we are eating into our future.” And in West Virginia, the Charleston Gazette editorializes about a “human swarm” that is “overbreeding” in a way that “prosperous, well-educated families” from the developed world do not.

To read the full article, please click here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576651391038917246.html