Dangers of Overpopulation

I would like to address the letters from the all-knowing capitalists that will be sent to The Times criticizing the Ehrlichs for their views on the dangers of the ever-burgeoning human population. It seems to me that these interests are very shortsighted. These “business-at-all-costs” advocates would have us nuke the world if it meant a short-term profit or an expanding economy.

The Ehrlichs mentioned “global warming, acid precipitation, ozone depletion, loss of biological diversity, deforestation, desertification (and) the garbage crisis”. For all of these dangers there is a definite basis for concern. Yet business interests would have us ignore all of these problems and instead worry only about our pocketbooks and our convenience. For instance:

--Consumer demand for fossil fuels to use for transportation, heating and electricity has resulted in strip mining, coastal drilling and carbon dioxide emissions.

--Consumers want fast food, fast-food outlets want inexpensive beef, so ranchers destroy the South American rain forest to raise cows.

--Consumers want and waste lumber and paper, so loggers clear cut the North American rain forest.

--Consumers want convenience, so every product is over-packaged and eventually discarded.

JEFFREY T. GWYNN

Hawthorne