Abstinence only doesn’t just fail in sex ed. It fails the overpopulation argument too.

While it’s easy enough to see the merits of the overpopulation argument, it ignores the basic human fact that a lot of folks want to have kids. Instead of arguing with those who have kids -- overpopulation concerns may be better addressed by first helping people who don’t want children or any more children not have them achieve that goal.

Help make access to birth control a basic human right – even for minors and people who cannot afford to pay for it. Support sex education – the real kind – not abstinence only. Support Planned Parenthood. Vote to keep abortion safe and legal. Support efforts in developing nations to provide birth control to everyone who wants it.

Invest in programs that support women who want to start their own businesses in countries where they have few options or rights. Lifting women up financially can help sever the tie between their societal value and the number of children they produce.

Get involved in programs that educate women that they do have rights and choices involving reproduction. Support reform efforts within religious groups that allow for birth control without threatening one’s eternal fate.

Help make sure that adoption is financially feasible for people who do want to parent.

While deciding not to have children yourself helps a little, helping to address the thousands of children born to the unwilling or unprepared could do so much more. Allow for other people’s religious and societal values and see if there is some way to work within them to help them see the value in having fewer children. Show people through your actions that childfree living is practiced by kind and thoughtful people.

Attacking people who want a couple of kids doesn’t do much to address the problem at hand. If overpopulation concerns are to ever reach the people that most need to hear them, it will be through a message of respect and tolerance.

I received a visit in my home from a salesperson who represents a national home improvement chain.

Not a traveling salesman or a grifter, but someone representing a national chain. If you call Home Depot or such about a remodel, they send someone over to give you an estimate. That's what it sounds like happened here.

My own experience with Home Depot contractors has been miserable. I don't think they have any idea who they send out to meet you.

I agree that overpopulation is largely to blame for global warming.

But wouldn't population growth be best curtailed by addressing the fact that the 50% of the world's women do not have regular access to reliable birth control?

In our myopic lives, we forget that lots of the world cannot just pick up their cell and make an appointment with their gynecologist if a family of six is not on their agenda. This includes portions of the US -- where Planned Parenthood's are blocked and religious pharmacists refuse to fill patients' prescriptions for the pill.

It's easy to judge the family of six at Applebee's, but is that really where the bulk of the problem of overpopulation lies? In countries where women have access to education and birth control, the number of children per family is consistently and voluntarily declining.

Where are the programs for getting birth control into the desperate hands of those who need and want it? Why do we allow Bush to dictate that US funds will not be used in any foreign aide program that promotes responsible reproduction?

If we truly want to reduce the world's population to a sustainable level, wouldn't it be wise to make sure the folks who don't want any (or any more) children have the all the ways and means possible to keep from procreating?