Elizabeth Kolbert's recent lecture at the Lensic Performing Arts Center concerning global warming included the usual suspects, such as deforestation, coal-burning power plants, gas-guzzling cars and trucks and a myriad of other human activities. Though she was long on cause and effect, she was shy on the "why."

She showed dramatic slides of Alaskan coastal villages being gobbled up by the ocean. Because of melting permafrost, huge sink holes have suddenly been appearing on the campus of the University of Alaska, and forests are leaning over like drunken sailors. Based on ice core samples, her charts and graphs depicted the history of the earth's temperature fluctuations over the past 400 thousand years. Modern human activity has literally spiked the data off the charts.

To this aged tree hugger, her presentation looked like déjá vu all over again. As a member of several environmental groups since my college days in the late 60s, I am wondering why it has taken us so long to finally see the forest for the trees. Way back then all of those organizations and a group of concerned environmental scientists called The Club of Rome were trying to show us the handwriting on the wall. Unfortunately, the general public preferred to shoot the messengers, and the mainstream media relegated the warnings to page 12 of section C.

So here we are now fast approaching the tipping point when there will be no going back. We have cut so many strands of the web of life that dire consequences might very well be unavoidable. The days of silver-bullet solutions are far behind us and drastic measures are about our only option. Changing out a few light bulbs, over-inflating our tires and taking the bus now and then ain't gonna cut it because all of the environmental problems we now face can be traced back to one thing — the impact of over-population and its ugly twin of over-consumption. We simply have to stop making babies. If you absolutely must have a child, adopt one of the many who need a good home.

There is a new catch-phrase called "carbon footprint." Industries refer to it as "cap and trade" or carbon overload based on their propensity to pollute the environment. Technically speaking, all of us and every child go through life leaving an ever-increasing carbon footprint of consumption and cast-off, especially in developed countries such as the U.S. and Western Europe.

It is time to get serious about reproductive rights. I envision a system of rewarding people for not having children. Free vasectomies for men and free tubal ligations for women should be readily available. Tax deduction incentives for bearing children should be eliminated and replaced by rewards for married couples who remain childless.

Granted, because of religious beliefs, maternal instincts, male egos and family traditions, my proposal would be a very hard sell, but because human reproduction is the "why" of the possible demise of our species, it must be addressed immediately.

If you want to see the startling hypothesis of my beliefs visit www.grothismadness.org or www.overpopulation.org or www.balance.org. At www.cosmosmith.com/human_population_crisis.htm watch the tallying population clock, and you might be convinced that the only decisions we have left are drastic ones.

Warren Dunn lives in Santa Fe and says he's "proud to be a lifelong, kid-free environmentalist."