CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Billionaire philanthropists led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett met privately at the Manhattan home of Nobel laureate biologist Sir Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University, according to the London Times.

They discussed the world's worst looming problems, such as global warming, poverty, Muslim terrorism, the end of oil reserves, and the like. They concluded that one evil overrides all others -- overpopulation.

Growth of the human swarm is awesome. Around 1930, when many senior West Virginians were born, world population was 2 billion. It passed 6 billion in 1999 -- tripling in a single lifespan -- and today is estimated at 6.6 billion. It could pass 10 billion by 2050 unless birth-control programs intensify, the U.N. Population Fund projects.

The worst upsurge is occurring in low-income, ill-fed, developing countries, not in prosperous Western democracies. However, the United States ranks among fast-bloating lands, partly because of rapid Hispanic and Asian immigration. Within a generation, traditional European whites are expected to be a minority in America.

Uncontrolled population growth brings many agonies: Food supplies become inadequate. Poverty spreads when there aren't enough new jobs for expanding numbers of young people reaching working age. Pollution and soil erosion worsen. Urban congestion breeds crime, noise, disease, stress. Safe water supplies run low. Social conflicts rise. Etc.

The rate of increase was worst in the 1980s. Since then, several advanced Western democracies have stabilized, holding steady. Prosperity is the best birth control, the familiar adage says. But rampant rise continues in the Third World, where tribal taboos and religious prohibitions hinder efforts to cut birthrates.

"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" is a landmark 2005 book by Pulitzer Prize-winning University of California scholar Jared Diamond. It says nations disintegrate when their surging populations overwhelm available soil, water, forests, fish and other food supplies. Deteriorating countries often sink into desperate wars that hasten their demise.

In "The End of Plenty," National Geographic recently warned that the renowned Green Revolution has boosted crops almost as far as possible, and hunger might worsen where population keeps climbing. Last year, after rising food prices caused riots in several poor lands, the director of the U.N. World Food Programme said:

"The world's misery index is rising. This is a silent tsunami that respects no borders. Most don't know what hit them."

Professor Vanda Felbab-Brown of Georgetown University commented: "Anti-American groups such as al-Qaida will be able to mobilize marginalized, frustrated populations that are especially affected by the food crisis."

The U.N. food agency will hold a world food summit in November. As a preliminary, 300 international experts gathered in Rome this week and warned that mass starvation might occur unless world food output grows 70 percent by 2050. Already, they said, 1 billion people live with hunger.

The population explosion is mostly invisible, yet it spreads far-reaching evils around the world. Not just billionaires like Bill Gates but all thinking people should support birth-control efforts to reduce the danger.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Billionaire philanthropists led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett met privately at the Manhattan home of Nobel laureate biologist Sir Paul Nurse, president of Rockefeller University, according to the London Times.

They discussed the world's worst looming problems, such as global warming, poverty, Muslim terrorism, the end of oil reserves, and the like. They concluded that one evil overrides all others -- overpopulation.

Growth of the human swarm is awesome. Around 1930, when many senior West Virginians were born, world population was 2 billion. It passed 6 billion in 1999 -- tripling in a single lifespan -- and today is estimated at 6.6 billion. It could pass 10 billion by 2050 unless birth-control programs intensify, the U.N. Population Fund projects.

The worst upsurge is occurring in low-income, ill-fed, developing countries, not in prosperous Western democracies. However, the United States ranks among fast-bloating lands, partly because of rapid Hispanic and Asian immigration. Within a generation, traditional European whites are expected to be a minority in America.

Uncontrolled population growth brings many agonies: Food supplies become inadequate. Poverty spreads when there aren't enough new jobs for expanding numbers of young people reaching working age. Pollution and soil erosion worsen. Urban congestion breeds crime, noise, disease, stress. Safe water supplies run low. Social conflicts rise. Etc.

The rate of increase was worst in the 1980s. Since then, several advanced Western democracies have stabilized, holding steady. Prosperity is the best birth control, the familiar adage says. But rampant rise continues in the Third World, where tribal taboos and religious prohibitions hinder efforts to cut birthrates.

"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" is a landmark 2005 book by Pulitzer Prize-winning University of California scholar Jared Diamond. It says nations disintegrate when their surging populations overwhelm available soil, water, forests, fish and other food supplies. Deteriorating countries often sink into desperate wars that hasten their demise.

In "The End of Plenty," National Geographic recently warned that the renowned Green Revolution has boosted crops almost as far as possible, and hunger might worsen where population keeps climbing. Last year, after rising food prices caused riots in several poor lands, the director of the U.N. World Food Programme said:

"The world's misery index is rising. This is a silent tsunami that respects no borders. Most don't know what hit them."

Professor Vanda Felbab-Brown of Georgetown University commented: "Anti-American groups such as al-Qaida will be able to mobilize marginalized, frustrated populations that are especially affected by the food crisis."

The U.N. food agency will hold a world food summit in November. As a preliminary, 300 international experts gathered in Rome this week and warned that mass starvation might occur unless world food output grows 70 percent by 2050. Already, they said, 1 billion people live with hunger.

The population explosion is mostly invisible, yet it spreads far-reaching evils around the world. Not just billionaires like Bill Gates but all thinking people should support birth-control efforts to reduce the danger.