A challenge to the letters on population.

• Author: Washburn, Nicole
• Position: From Readers - Letter to the Editor

I'm surprised by the one-sided view expressed in various letters, that overpopulation is the issue and that World Watch avoids it. If we focused only on overpopulation, sheer numbers and their effect, wouldn't we be creating a larger and larger blindspot in our understanding of the planet? World Watch focuses on overconsumption (overharvesting of the oceans and forests, excessive burning of fossil fuels, resulting air, soil, and water contamination, overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, and other topics intimately related to the above), a problem that is both larger and more "solvable" than overpopulation. Lowering world birth rates may buy us more time, but it will not solve any environmental problems in and of itself. The "overpopulation issue" serves as a type of shell game in which we can keep pointing fingers "over there"--at Latin, African, and Asian communities--and never really get around to us. Undeniably, there are too many humans on the planet. But this is only part of the problem. The richest people on the planet (probably 99 percent of the people reading World Watch, myself included) share the lifestyle most directly linked to environmental problems and therefore are the most able to make positive change.

What is missing from the entire discussion, and from most of the "environmental movement" in general, is love. Please don't laugh! As we get lost in all the intellectual debates and the mind-bending problems, we forget about the deeper connection with the land that we've all lost and are just beginning to recover. In the September/October article, "What Is Sustainablity?," The authors write: "Science will improve our meager understanding of the immensly complex natural systems we live in and...