More relevant than, even without a bricks-and-mortar presence. We in the Seattle area ought to be concerned, as we swallow up houses as well as every bit of open space that’s still left – to put up condos – and relentlessly expand into the foothills of the Cascades. In high school I sported buttons on my shirt that said«Zero Population Growth.» I got them right from this office in Wallingford. Unfortunately, the local branch folded – replaced by a sex shop, I believe. Population Connection is the successor to ZPG(Zero Population Growth), originally founded by Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich. It was the first attempt to put population growth at the forefront of popular consciousness in the U.S. I have been a member off and on over the past 15 years. I still get«literature» from the organization, based in D.C., though I do not attend local meetings. But I wholeheartedly support the goals and policy recommendations of Population Connection. In «An Inconvenient Truth,» Al Gore did mention the population explosion that has occurred in the past half-century. Between 1950 and 2000, world population TRIPLED from 2 to 6 billion. The benefits of the things we do to save the environment – changing our consumer habits, recycling, or driving cleaner, more efficient vehicles – will all be erased by population growth. And we in the U.S., 5% of the world’s population, consuming 25% of the world’s energy, have a disproportionate effect… By year 2050 we will have added another 130 million people(the equivalent of four states the size of California). 40% of the births in this country are unintended. A billion people in the world don’t eat enough to support normal daily activities. Ten million die annually of hunger-related problems. Highly recommended link: Not only will continued population growth seriously«inconvenience» us, it will menace the very existence of life on this planet as we now know it. Not that Bush is(almost) gone, maybe we can begin to work on making headway in solving these problems. Population is the crux – you can’t solve any of them without addressing the pressures population growth places on the world’s limited resources.