Benign uproar

One man casts his shadow over this week's issue on overpopulation and overconsumption—Maurice King. Profiled on p 942, King suggested we should have a theme issue in the week when the world's population tops 6 billion. Many readers will be surprised by his view that the US constrains discussion on world population because it doesn't want to act on overconsumption (p 998). But few, we hope, will disagree that the subject of population and consumption growth deserves “benign uproar” —intense debate.

And indeed, there is much …