William S. Lefes: Population tied to climate issues

Thomas Friedman’s Dec. 17 column “A big, big deal” on the Paris accord was an important facet of our concerns for the existence of mankind on this earth.

However, no mention is made of the elephant in the room – the population explosion in the world that slowly but surely is causing the real problem. But it is understandable why our esteemed writers do not want to talk about the problem. I think we should talk about it.

I can recall that when United States Agency for International Development in the 1960s launched its population program, the cables sent to us overseas were classified because we did not want the countries that we were serving to become concerned about reducing the rate of population growth in their countries.

It took about 20 years before countries learned that child spacing was a good idea. Maybe this good idea that we learned from our African colleagues needs to be shared with others.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "William S. Lefes: Population tied to climate issues."