Selkey Knight: Celebrating overpopulation

Looking at the May 9 edition, I noticed something disturbing. On the front page there was a news article headlined “Apex family’s 7th wonder is a girl.”

I have nothing against children. Some of my favorite people are children. I think that they are amazing examples of human potential. But more than two children are born every second, more than 74 million every year.

Our global population currently stands at more than 7.3 billion people, and it is increasing at an alarming rate. In the United States there are almost 400,000 children living without permanent families. With more than 350,000 babies born daily, this story seems kind of ridiculous when it is included under the heading of “news.”

Why, especially on the front page of the newspaper, are we celebrating a family who is working on their seventh child? Why are we encouraging people to contribute to the clear problem of overpopulation? We are endangering our own species by ignoring these warning signs.

Imagine if every woman of child-bearing age decided to have seven children. What, pray tell, makes this story newsworthy?

This story was originally published May 18, 2015 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Selkey Knight: Celebrating overpopulation."