…while dozens of pundits and politicians paid tribute to Gaylord Nelson following his death on July 3 at age 89 and lauded him for his sterling environmental record, most made passing or no reference to the issue to which the father of Earth Day devoted the last decade of his life: overpopulation. It is, Nelson had maintained, not only a critical issue for the future of mankind, but the most compelling issue of them all.
(Dr. Dennis Maki, head of infectious diseases at the UW-Madison Medical School, is quoted in this first installment of a two-part series by Rob Zaleski.)