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Population growth weighs on world’s resources

The front-page story “Bipartisan steps urged on climate change policy” (Nov. 19) includes myriad solutions to slow down global warming. The problem is, it is too little, too late. There is an elephant in the room — the population growth rate. Like so many other articles that focus on the symptoms of global warming, this article did not address the problem of an already overpopulated Earth.

According to statistics from both the United Nations and the US Census Bureau, there were 3 billion people on the planet in 1960. Today there are 7 billion, predicted to rise to between 9 billion and 10 billion by 2050. The world cannot sustain even today's numbers indefinitely, as we are using up nonrenewable resources, especially oil, with abandon. These are resources that took 250 million years to create.

Can we reduce our worldwide dependence on oil faster than the population growth rate? Not a CHANCE.

Jeff Herman
West Roxbury