As I read "Climate Revolutionary," I wondered what Mary Wood suggests for population (HCN, 5/12/08). As I read in "Heard around the West" that "The bill to help farmers more quickly recruit legal workers passed the (Colorado) House ...," I pondered labor activist Cesar Chavez's forgotten legacy.

Nations with high growth rates hinder efforts by all for climate and energy solutions. That includes our own, where economic "elites" swoon at the mere thought of population stabilization. As Al Gore hinted and as economist Kenneth Boulding said, "Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

By 2050, just eight nations will have contributed half of all growth on the planet. They are India, Pakistan, Nigeria, the United States, China, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- in that order (Source: United Nations). Three -- India, China and the United States -- are both carbon-emissions giants and the only nations with populations over 300 million. There should be a legal remedy against nations that encourage population tsunamis, including our own, which is driven by immigration roughly 30 times pre-1965 levels despite warnings from Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson that population -- global and United States -- must be stabilized.

Although Douglas Bruce's comments were boorish, I am less worried about Colorado agricultural interests -- who fought having to provide workers with even basic sanitation facilities -- than for our forgotten resident poor. Those on the open-borders bandwagon might consider why Chavez, knowing he could never leverage advancements in a flooded labor market, volunteered his United Farm Workers to patrol the border.

Kathleene Parker Rio Rancho, New Mexico