Population Growth

by Edd Doerr

This letter was published in the March 2013 issue of The Progressive ---

"Rein in Population Growth"

"Your February issue is one of the best ever. And in your 'Overheating Planet' Comment, you're right to say that worldwide action is imperative.

 "But that action must be accompanied by reining in population  growth.

 "Our numbers will rise from seven billion now to nine billion by 2050. The Ford Administration's 1975 National Security Study Memorandum 200 report, 'Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests',  spelled this out, but it was mysteriously  classified and deep-sexed for nearly twenty years and then ignored.

 "The clock is ticking."

 "Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty"

(Note: Some sources believe that  Catholic Church officials were behind the suppression of the NSSM 200 report. I reviewed population scientist Stephen Mumford's 1996 book with the report and commentary, "The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a  US Population Policy", in the Americans for Religious Liberty journal Voice of Reason, in USA Today magazine  and in my column in The Humanist.)