You won't find the issue on any of Al Gore's Power Point charts. There are no celebrities pushing for it as a priority in American public policy. World leaders are not having summits about it. The covers of Time and Newsweek aren't featuring this issue. Great thinkers are still talking about vanishing green space, emission controls, melting glaciers, water shortages, world hunger, solving poverty, and more.

But when you look at these issues, nothing affects each of them more than spiraling population growth.

Every day, this planet supports about 350,000 new human lives and every time you turn around, the global population has seemingly grown exponentially. Millions of acres of green space are lost to accommodate living space for humans, livestock, and agriculture. Unhealthy emissions are dramatically increasing because of growing needs for new products, transportation and jobs. The water supply is stressed as cities and suburbs become urban strips and as towns and villages grow past their resources. New deserts are being created because of climate change and erosion, especially as land is stripped of its natural protections to make way for increased development. In many parts of the world, people are hungry because their region’s food supply can't keep up with growing demand. Our wildlife is vanishing because animals are hunted for food and trade and development deprives them of space to thrive.

Almost every problem we face on this planet today is created or aggravated by the fact that there are simply too many people. The myth that technological advances will enable us to sustain an increasing population is simply not true.

Basic common sense dictates that if can control the population, we will be more able to deal with global warming, hunger, poverty and other related issues.

Look at the frightening statistics.

World Population:
1900 -- 1.6 Billion
2006 -- 6.5 Billion
2012 -- 7.0 Billion
2050 -- 9.0 Billion

You think it feels crowded now? Wait until the population increases by 50 percent. It will happen by the time children born today reach 43-years-old. We will be struggling for food and clean air, fighting rising waters, experiencing intense weather disasters, attempting to find enough clean water, and seeking ways to protect what is left of our green spaces and wildlife.

Amazingly, this issue is simply overlooked by many. Even more depressing, others avoid population control altogether because they don't want to open the political Pandora’s Box of family planning. They know, as I know, that it goes to the heart of many issues including religious beliefs, family planning being used in the past as a racist tool, and the strong urge of couples to reproduce.

In the old days, reproduction was essential. More children meant more resources to survive in a tough world. For farmers it meant more hands to help till the land. For urban immigrants, it meant more sources of income to feed the family. A big family was considered a resource and a blessing. In some places in the third world, these factors still come into play.

But there are other reasons why this issue is not discussed as we seek solutions to global problems.

Many religious institutions are adamantly against any kind of family planning. This is for spiritual reasons, but also because they want to continually increase the number of people who celebrate their faith.

In China, which has a strictly enforced family planning policy, female babies have been killed or abandoned because it is thought that a son has more value.

These factors are not small issues and quickly lead to heated debates about the intent of family planning programs. Couples react, often violently, if anyone suggests how many children they may or may not have. Many faith-based organizations put their full weight behind opposing serious birth control programs.

Accordingly, it is no wonder that leaders and organizations avoid this issue, even though population control is central to their efforts to preserve and improve quality of life on this planet. We must begin the dialogue now and we must institute tough programs that acknowledge the mistakes and lessons of the past. And we must not let a sad history keep us from doing what will, in the end, make this planet a better place for future generations.

Tomorrow, I will share some suggestions on how we might begin the process to overcome history, how we must hold firm on the separation of church and state, and how to begin serious family planning as part of our national policy.