Do you have something to say about population issues and want your community to hear it? Consider writing an op-ed or a letter to the editor of your local paper!
Writing an op-ed or letter to the editor (LTE) is a great way to organize your thoughts on a topic—in this case, population issues—and then share those thoughts with your community, or even your entire country. You can start by finding an article that you believe warrants a response (typically the impetus for writing an LTE), or you can write a longer opinion piece that isn’t necessarily a response to anything specific that you’ve read.
Here are a few examples of letters and op-eds on population issues that have been published in recent years in newspapers around the country.
Slow population growth is a good thing — letter by John Seager, published in The Washington Post
Foreign aid for family planning works. So why don’t we do more of it? — op-ed by Malcolm Potts and Alisha Graves, published in the Los Angeles Times
Remember the Population Bomb? It’s Still Ticking — opinion piece (op-ed) by Eugene Linden, published in The New York Times
Population Growth — letter by Philip Warburg, published in The New York Times
Talking about overpopulation is still taboo. That has to change. — letter by Frances Kissling, Jotham Musinguzi and Peter Singer, published in The Washington Post
Nigeria’s Population Boom: A Problem, or Not? — letters by Obadias Ndaba and by Tewodros Melesse, published in The New York Times
Help environment by limiting population boom — letter by Gary Wockner, published in Press & Journal (Middletown, PA)
Increasing population — letter by John Kennington, published in Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)
Poverty, Pollution and Population Growth — letter by Rowland Lane Anderson, published by Noozhawk (Santa Barbara, CA)
Letter: Overpopulation is cause of every environmental problem we face — letter by Ralph Curran, published in Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Washington)
Interested in writing one of your own?
Download our guide to writing LTEs, op-eds, and social media posts for more information, or get in touch with us at engage@popconnect.org!
