GROWTH: All problems boil down to overpopulation

Re: Matt Driscoll’s column regarding preservation of our neighborhoods (TNT, 8-20) concludes: “It’s what people aren’t explicitly saying or even thinking that bears examination.”

The question we seem incapable of examining is: How do we stop this growth from occurring in the first place? Virtually every societal and environment catastrophe is linked to overpopulation.

Overcrowding. Poverty. War. Dieback of pollinators. Death to any species not named Man. Pollution of oceans and rivers. Paving farmland for warehouses and tract homes. Billion-dollar bridges and two-mile backups attempting to reach Interstate 5 from state Route 16. Shrinking forests and glaciers and diminishing aquifers. Pick your poison.

The false and dangerous idea that endless growth is good for our future has blinded us to reality.

The current “conservative” mindset (and how I hate how they’ve corrupted that word) has politicians cutting birth control funding to somehow diminish abortions. Such madness. The unasked question is how we rein in our sexual proclivity before it’s too late?

Tacoma

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 1:28 PM with the headline "GROWTH: All problems boil down to overpopulation."