I heard on this radio programme on WBAI ;-) that China now consumes 3 times as much oil as the US. I probably heard or remember wrong, but usage is changing, yes?
But that's the least important part.
Note that Marta only wrote:
>
> If one cannot see the need for population control after reading this,
> well its hopeless LBOsters.
>
She didn't say population needs to be drastically reduced in the billions immediately. Or that it is the only cause of the problems that we see (I think she mentions climate change. You can add others like species extinction, etc).
As leftists, especially in the West/North, we should be used to a bit of daydreaming (or more appropriately reaching for something), yes? I doubt we are going to achieve any drastic action to change things in the near future. Emission control, technological advance, consumption "reform", population control, are at best going to inch forward, if at all, in a positive direction.
If you must rank them, sure, we can put emission control ahead. But that does not, it seems to me, negate Marta's point that human population is a serious problem.
--ravi
-- Support something better than yourself: ;-) PeTA: http://www.peta.org/ GreenPeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/