Opeds

2010 News Items

• April 22, 2010 - Planet Earth is Getting Too Crowded
  Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day. The first Earth Day marked the beginning of one of the largest grassroots movements that the world has ever seen. In the intervening four decades, much has been accomplished, including the passage of landmark legislation on clean air and clean water, and an international agreement to protect the Earth's ozone layer.
• April 21, 2010 - Uttering the "P" Word on Earth Day
  When the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, there was much discussion about population growth and its strain on Mother Earth. World population at that time was 3.7 billion. Today, with world population at 6.8 billion and still growing, nary a word is being said about population and its impact on the planet. What gives?
• January 31, 2010 - World's Leaders Need Plan to Confront Crises
  John Beddington, England's chief scientific adviser, warned last year of an approaching "perfect storm." He forecast that by 2030, population growth and climate change, along with a 50 percent increase in demand for food and energy and a 30 percent jump in demand for fresh water, could precipitate a global crisis. "There's not going to be a complete collapse," said Beddington, "but things will start getting really worrying if we don't tackle these problems."
• January 22, 2010 - Living on the Edge of Disaster
  Pat Robertson's assertions notwithstanding, the people of Haiti have fallen victim to an act of nature, not God's wrath for rejecting French colonial rule. The 7.0 temblor that struck Port au Prince this past week was not the first major quake that has rocked a Caribbean nation and it will not be the last. Earthquakes happen in greater frequency along geological fault lines like the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault System that runs along Haiti's southern coast.

2009 News Items

• September 03, 2009 - 19 Kids and Counting--Who Cares?
  18 Kids and Counting. That's the name of a popular reality television show about a couple, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, who last fall had 18 children. This week, it was announced that Michelle is pregnant again..so now it's 19 kids and counting. In a world consumed by issues like war, global recession, and climate change, should we care how many children Michelle is having? Maybe not. But if Michelle's story is a reflection of a trend towards higher birth rates in the U.S. and other advanced countries, we absolutely should be paying closer attention.
• June 18, 2009 - TLC Needs a Reality Check
  The world is careening toward a climate disaster; an international food crisis looms on the horizon; and scarcity of fresh water, oil, and other resources are dampening future economic growth prospects, but Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 18 children are doing just fine, thank you.
• April 16, 2009 - Madonna and a Little Mercy
  Malawi's rejection of Madonna's attempt to adopt a little three-year-old girl named Mercy makes for alliteration and good headlines, but it's the underlying story that really deserves the attention. Mercy is just the unfortunate poster-child for a much larger tragedy.
• March 13, 2009 - The Other Afghan Surge
  It's been seven years now since George W. Bush committed American troops to Afghanistan. Since then, Afghanistan's population has jumped by 22 percent, and under current projections, its population will be twice as large in 2026 as it was in 2001. That's because the average Afghan woman has almost seven children, one of the highest fertility rates in the world.
• February 23, 2009 - The Real Story Behind the Octuplets
  As Americans, we are obsessed with numbers, but often oblivious to their implications. We love record setting, whether it's the eight Olympic gold medals won by Michael Phelps last year or the octuplets born last month to Nadya Suleman. We derive great vicarious pleasure from these super-human feats.

2007 News Items

• March 12, 2007 - Protect the Planet, and Hurry
  Printed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 7, 2007