Readers React: Why the ‘population bomb’ might still explode

To the editor: Laurie Mazur has written a mixed message on population growth. (“China drops its ‘one-child’ policy, now let’s ban the ‘population bomb,’” Op-Ed, Nov. 3)

She claims incorrectly that Paul Ehrlich was wrong in 1968 when he wrote about the “population bomb” and says population growth must slow. She points to the cruel and inhumane “one-child” policy in China as a failure, but for the Chinese, they got their rate of population increase below the rate of their economic growth. As the result, China is now a world power.

Ehrlich was wrong only in his timing. Most of his prognostications have come true and then some.

Overpopulation has led to mass famine in the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa. The loss of arable land has led to political instability, wars and mass migrations. The United States has an influx of people from South and Central America, and Europe has hordes coming from Africa and Asia.

Her prescription for more education to slow growth has worked where secular education is available to the masses. But every fundamentalist religion (you name it) opposes family planning, and their acolytes control many parts of the world.

It is not the facts of Erlich’s “bomb” that are wrong; rather, it is the unwillingness of so many to acknowledge the limitations of Mother Earth.

Emil Lawton, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: The population bomb has not been defused; the Green Revolution and family planning have merely lengthened the fuse.

The author acknowledges that population in the least developed countries “will double by mid-century and triple by 2100.” A similar situation exists in water-poor countries. (Yes, there is much overlap.) The current migration to Europe by refugees from Africa and the Middle East could be a foreshadowing of far more to come.

Social and economic injustices have existed throughout history, and seem more likely to be aggravated than resolved when faced with a global population that continues to grow despite our slow and modest success at trying to limit that growth.

Bob Carlson, Garden Grove

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