MB Civic

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/opinion/14tierney.html?pagewanted=print

In discussing the rise of the U.S. population to 300,000,000, Tierney claims that “dire predictions” in 1968 (when the population hit 200,000,000) about “overpopulation” were wrong. As an example, he says that, far from going hungry due to a lack of food, new parents are more worried that their kids will become obese.

But Tierney then makes a critical error by noting India and China vis-a-vis certain ways in which attempts to control population growth have “hurt” those countries. But he seems to miss the fact that, having brought up “hunger” vis-a-vis the U.S., he cannot then ignore it globally, since it is a major problem caused by overpopulation; i.e., there may be no lack of food here in the U.S., but there is a severe lack of food – to say nothing of potable water – throughout a great deal of the rest of the world.