Overpopulation could be too much of a good thing

The Gazette-Times editor believes that most Corvallis residents welcome measured, careful growth ("Consider benefits of local development," July 22). This may be true, but does it make sense? Certain businesses, especially effective monopolies, clearly benefit from a larger market. The cost of producing the G-T doesn't double if circulation doubles. For most people, however, increasing population simply means increasing competition for jobs, clients and resources.

Imagine if every community in the world felt they had an economic need for modest growth, say, 1-2 percent a year. (The predicted annual growth for Corvallis over the next 20 years is roughly 1 percent per year; see the August 2007 copy of The City.)

The global population would then double in between 35 and 70 years, less than a typical lifetime. Is this what we want? And if we don't, how do we decide which communities "deserve" a rising population and which don't? Or when we have reached the right size to settle into a steady state?

I understand that the present distribution of town size may be wrong. Perhaps small towns that can't provide adequate services should die, and maybe supercities create more problems than they have solved. Perhaps the U.S. should consist of 300 cities of one million people each, with nothing in between; I don't know. But a rising population from here to eternity won't work, and at some point we need to adapt our economy to that fact, and now seems like a good time to start taking this seriously.

Laurence Padman

Corvallis

Enough debate on global warming; time for solutions

Chuck Lane's letter of July 25, "Let's be sure global warming is real," calls for a series of public debates on climate change. The debate has been over (for several years): climate change is real, and it is an environmental and economic disaster.

Proof: Antarctic ice shelves are breaking up during the southern winter of 2008; the average amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) has moved from 270 ppm (part per million) to more than 387 ppm; the ocean is growing more acidic (as excess CO2 cannot be buffered); and average global temperatures continue to rise.

Public debate needed now includes conservation (better mileage for cars, super-insulated homes) along with a national plan for mass transit, wind and solar energies and designing hydrogen fuel cells.

Instead, Congress, Republican-controlled from 1994 till 2006, now pushes more drilling for oil? These gutless politicians (from both parties) stayed mute as the SUV boom sucked oil by the billions of barrels, ignored raising mile-per-gallon efficiencies for cars and never asked once for American citizens to face up to our fatal oil addiction.

The airways are filled with gimmicks: big oil companies telling us to drill more, while paying lip service to alternatives. Big oil is funding an ad "blitz" to scare citizens. They don't want a discussion on climate change. Will the "liberal media" give us that debate? No, big oil pays big dollars for propaganda - I mean, television ads.

Climate change is real. No matter what Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Lars Larson tell you.

John F. Borowski

Philomath

Unsafe bicyclists need to clean up their act as well

I appreciated the July 29 editorial, "With biking booming, we must watch out." I am an avid bicycle commuter and a member of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. We bicycle advocates are used to asking motorists to watch out for bikes.

But today, I am calling on some bicyclists to clean up their act. This isn't about those impeccable and law-abiding riders. I see many illegal and dangerous acts committed by an active minority of bicyclists. I'm not referring to the occasional drift through a stop sign on a back street.

I've seen riders go the wrong direction up a one-way street, while oncoming cars are trying get out of the way. I've seen riders at busy intersections cross diagonally from curb to curb. There are many other infractions - too many to list. I want to see these people get traffic tickets for putting themselves and others in danger.

Don Boucher

Corvallis

To save on education costs, let's put all schools online

The Corvallis School District has invited taxpayers to submit opinions on a proposal to impose a new construction excise tax for capital improvements projects in the district.

I wonder how many of the school officials have read the recent reports about cutting the school week to four days. The result (no big surprise to those of us who hated school) is that student performance consistently rises.

Most districts reporting this result have cut the week by 20 percent because they cannnot afford to heat/cool the existing infrastructure, and they cannot afford to run the school bus fleet five days a week on $4.85 diesel. So the cuts are a win/win for everyone: The kids get to stay home, the Earth appreciates the lower carbon footprint of the school system, and performance of students rises.

My experience with school would indicate that grades would improve if the kids were given five days off instead of one. So I ask the Corvallis board to look at ending the tyranny of classroom education to go entirely to e-classes (one algebra teacher for Oregon would be sufficient if the teaching programs were efficient. Sell the buses, convert the schools to factories to build solar panels and let the vast majority of school employees find another niche in our economy. Give every kid a good computer and watch what happens. It'll be beautiful!

We're into the post-peak-oil adjustment period. Taxing an already-overtaxed public to add to an obsolete school infrastructure is laughable, but predictable.

Kirk S. Nevin

Corvallis

Learn when to wear a wet suit to be safe in the water

Every few weeks I hear about a drowning in one of our a local rivers.

These tragedies are avoidable, but wearing a life jacket is sometimes not enough. Nationally, 10 percent of drowning victims were wearing their life jackets. Locally, because of low water temperatures, that number may be higher. Cold water results in loss of strength in as little as 30 seconds. More important, it can result in a gasping reflex from a sudden unexpected immersion in cold water.

So how do you boat safely in the Pacific Northwest? The America Canoe Association, www.americancanoe.org, has a 120-degree Fahrenheit rule: If the water temperature plus the air temperature is less than 120 degrees, then you should wear immersion clothing such as a wetsuit or drysuit. Compared to the cost of a boat, wetsuits are cheap to buy and cheaper to rent.

This will prevent this loss of strength, and the gasping reflex. Our state has many wonderful recreational boating opportunities. However, preventing tragedy requires preparation.

Current water conditions gathered by the U.S. Geological Service are tabulated at www.wkcc.org/levels/?P=Oregon.html.

If the water if 50 degrees and the air is 70 degrees or cooler, then wear a wet suit.

Jim Sackinger

Corvallis

Medicare turns 43 today; Take note, and take action

Today's anniversary of Medicare's 1965 birth is a time for celebration and action. Medicare has given seniors and disabled Americans what we all want: secure, high quality care with wide choice of caregivers - and little waste on administrative middlemen.

But insurance companies, Wall Street and medical entrepreneurs, seeking more profits from health care, want to dismantle this model public program. The same 2003 law that created the Medicare drug benefit also launched a set of steps to privatize Medicare with heavily subsidized Medicare Advantage and prescription (Part D) plans. These plans benefit insurance and drug companies far more than patients. This month, overriding a presidential veto, Congress took small but vital actions to undo that scheme and improve Medicare.

To secure quality, affordable health care for our parents, ourselves, and our children, let's all tell the presidential and congressional candidates to stop Medicare privatization.

Mike Huntington, M.D.

Corvallis