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On march 31, Donna Hall mentioned overpopulation as having an impact on the earth. Thank you, Donna, for noticing the elephant in the room.

Overpopulation is the root cause of our environmental woes, yet no one seems to be paying attention.

We are adding a billion people every 12 years, which is clearly unsustainable. We should all conserve, recycle and use clean energy, but these laudable efforts are dwarfed by a rapidly-growing population. It’s not rocket science: more people equals more pollution.

So the real answer is to stabilize population. We need to continue limiting our carbon footprint, but if we want to save the earth, it is urgent that we start to support family planning throughout the world.

In other words, we must make birth control available everywhere.

— Maydene Fisher, Scotts Valley

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