Getting it right about population (I).

• Author: Bleier, Ronald
• Position: From Readers - Letter to the Editor

Thank you for the exchange on population between Derek Dexheimer and Radhika Satin ("From Readers," July/August). I always look to the letters column for challenging probes of issues that are raised or implied by World Watch.

Sarin's response to Dexheimer's important question was a disquieting acknowledgment of the force of Dexheimer's point: namely, that World Watch prefers to avoid addressing the intractable problem of runaway population growth. When Sarin responds that the study of population should consider how we deal with gender, poverty and other factors, she is misdirecting the discussion away from the fundamental issue of the impact of growing numbers of humans on the earth's resource base. Arguably, as Malthus taught us, our runaway population growth...