Looking at wrong issues on population growth

The Karen Wagner letter of July 26 missed the point on several fronts. Though her focus seemed to be on global warming caused by to many people, her ramblings avoided the elephants in the room.

First, the topic of man-made global warming has been debunked by the fraud created by the release of emails in England that detailed how the data was being rigged to get desired results.

The past 18 years have moderated and cooled. That's why the new buzz term is global climate change. Like it always has.

Second, population growth is occurring at a rate of 1.1 percent, which seems rather small, but to put it into perspective, in 50 years the world population will increase from 7.1 billion to 12.3 billion and in a 100 years to 21 billion at current rates.

However, this is all virtually happening in underdeveloped countries, particularly those in the Southern Hemisphere and the Middle East. These countries have little use of typical fossil fuels.

Population growth has stopped in most developed countries except through immigration, both legal and illegal. This is particularly true in Europe and North America.

Third, based upon energy experts, with the exception of coal, the world has only about 100 years left of natural gas and oil. I suspect, based upon future trends, coal will once again become a popular source of energy, like it or not. Or problem solved, we all freeze to death.

Fourth, nuclear energy is the cleanest form of reusable energy and yet every year another plant is shut down either for demand issues or cost issues. Since it takes 20 years to bring a new plant on line, it seems like we are really rushing to disaster.

World population growth is a problem, but the issues will be food and security.

Richard Francke

Bartlett