The equation includes, yes, the population. But it also includes the appetite of the population. On that score, the US leads the list in consumption per capita, and has an obligation to the rest of the residents of this blue and green marble. I don't know what the actual equivalent is, but I would venture to say that on the scale of CPC, one average US resident is equal to as much as several thousand of some residents of subsistance level regions. It all comes down to sustainability. And for that, The US and, to a lesser degree, the other industrialized nations have to drastically cut resource consumption.

On the more general issue of population, per se, just look at the prissy every-sperm-cell-needs-a-name attitude of our current boob. Not only is it a domestic nightmare to not talk openly and responsibly about procreation and our obligation to the larger human family, but we must export it in the manner of refusing to fund world programs that try to adress overpopulation with genuine education, or withhold funding for same.

I am not hopeful. I am 51, and I figure that the confluence of oil running out, water being in short supply--we haven't discussed THAT one, have we?--deteriorating air quality, and the ravaging of just about every non-human species will conbime to turn the lives of the surviving humans within my lifetime, and maybe within the next decade.

President Bush is obviously not the answer; Kerry is only not as bad. I'll vote for him and cross my fingers that we might get another few years before the boom lowers.