Counterpoint: Going Green Good Luck

The editorial in Sunday June 6, 2010 Minneapolis Star Tribune paper entitled “Going Green ..Good Luck" by Greg Breining seemed to have someone like me in mind. To be green, I do many of the things he mentioned. But instead of being offended I readily agree with his major point: that many of us do things that we think are green, but the reality is they are not.

It is important to be green in ways that are effective, not just in ways that make us feel better.

Though Breining's points are well taken, he left out the most important part of the story. The most effective "green" choice of all is to have fewer children. Our planet is already overpopulated causing the depletion of many vital resources and rising pollution.

The largest green problem we have on our planet is not too many plastic bags; it is the total number of people using them. It is not finding a new source of greener energy but the fact that by the time you get up tomorrow morning there will be a net gain of over 200,000 more people needing that new source of energy.

The planet does not care what we do individually; it cares only about the sum total of our actions and impact.


We can fiddle all we want with green options, but none of them are sustainable when our net gain – births minus deaths – on this already overpopulated planet is 9,000 people per hour.

Trying to increase wind and solar power, save endangered species, use compact fluorescents, and recycle are all fine and dandy. But we must recognize that human numbers are currently far above the carrying capacity of a planet. Earth's finite water, soil and minerals are already insufficient to sustain those here. Unless we address the relentless growth of human numbers, all our "green" efforts will be ineffective.


It is time to have the courage to look this core issue in the eye with a compassionate heart so that we can achieve sustainability by humanely reducing birth rates to allow total population to drop back to a long-term sustainable level.