Global warming appears to be a reality, with around ten years of a warming trend that continues on this year. The ice at both poles is melting at a high rate, for one thing, and weather patterns have been altered around the world, such as those for rainfall.

And the ozone layer does appear to be badly damaged, leading to untold costs to plants and animals, including additional skin cancer to human beings.

The root cause of all this is overpopulation. This has been coming on for thousands of years. The population began to skyrocket with the Industrial Revolution and last century's modern medical breakthroughs and better nutrition for most people.

There are also shortages of food, fossil fuels [ahead], clean water, other chemicals, natural gas, competent professional and non-professional people, and democratic principles in much of the world.

In other words, in America, the cost of living is beginning to take off, such as the recent rise in the price of foreign crude oil, and domestic natural gas. This has caused a surcharge for airplane tickets, along with the rising costs of home heating oil and gasoline.

While these two examples might well fall in price in the short run, the longer term outlook is for higher and higher prices, with alternative energy supplies being even more costly to consider at current levels of consumption.

The only way the world is going to survive is with less people. This means less demand on our lands and waters and air, which would help the environment. How this is going to be achieved does not look pretty.

Sincerely,

Dr. Zachary J. Fink

Zachary J. Fink, Ph. D. Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), 1971, recently Computer Science Coordinator at Abilitech, a school for the disabled, recent Research Director for the Lenox Institute of Water Technology, now semi-retired