"I would ask, however, how many of the people of other countries, who are outraged by this, if offered the opportunity to magicly join the American middle class, and live in a huge house in a cold climate with oil heat, and own a big SUV to drive three miles to the mall in, and have a big yard which they mowed with a two-stroke riding mower, etc., would refuse it on moral grounds?"

I don't know about doing it on moral grounds, but I wouldn't want that myself. If it was the price I had to pay for not being hungry and honeless and so forth, I'd pay it. But it wouldn't be my first choice by a long way.

There are overpopulation problems - but's that's not the heart of it. There is's 4% of the worlds population in the USA, and causing 24% of the world's CO2 pollution. That's the biggest cause of global warming, and it's not because the USA is overpopulated. Motes and beams, motes and beams.