Editor,

In the Oct. 7 issue of the South Whidbey Record, Bill Rowlands of Langley writes that human population contributes to climate change. The idea is that more and more people on planet Earth result in creating increasing amounts of the main atmospheric gas that drives global warming. I agree, although when Rowlands writes that vehicles driven by a growing population spew out increasing amounts of carbon monoxide, the problem is that they spew out carbon dioxide, the rapidly increasing greenhouse gas in our atmosphere that drives climate warming.

The idea that growing human population on our planet contributes to this problem is not new. For those interested in this situation, I recommend that you read the book “The Population Bomb” (Population control or race to oblivion?) by Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich. Ehrlich was a biology professor at Stanford University at the time (1968) this book was published . I was a graduate student in the Geology Department back then. My wife Anne worked for Paul to help keep food on our home table. Paul now lives retired near Stanford.

Yes, a growing human population on our planet certainly does contribute to our ongoing climate change. Having fewer people on our planet could help slow and perhaps even reverse the annual amount of carbon dioxide that goes into our atmosphere. It’s only one factor in the situation, but it is indeed an important one.

Wendell A. Duffield

Greenbank