Overpopulation Despoils Nature

Re “Overhunting Has Ravaged Sea Habitats, Study Finds,� July 27: In hundreds of years of colonizing America, have we so forgotten what this country was like before? Where once passenger pigeons darkened the sky for an entire day as they flew over the land. Where buffalo numbered in the millions. Where the Eastern forests had hickory trees and maples that were as big around as a room, and you could sink down into the mulch up to your waist, and there was more life in one square acre than you can imagine now. Is the reality of what it was like completely lost to any memory alive today?

What about the fisheries of the West Coast? We have photos from the turn of the century of people pulling 75-plus-pound tuna out of the waters off Catalina all day long. Where are those fish now? If you look at a photo from space of the world, what you see is shocking. It suggests that we are the mange on the dog. And we are killing this dog that supports us. Overpopulation is the big issue. But this won’t be addressed by the Bush administration. Its agenda seems to be the economic interests of corporate structures. More people equals more consumers. Human egotism will make excuses for why we’re destroying the planet. Wake up, folks.

Julie Beardsley

San Pedro