The commentary "Countdown to Baby 300 million" [Chicago Tribune, January 18, 2006] is remarkable for what is left out, namely any environmental sense of what the event of the300 millionth American means in terms of diminished quality of life for the future, and related issues like water supply, air quality, food availability, open space, species preservation, etc.

The writer concludes with a sappy salute to "bigness."

The rest of us, however, may want to take a moment to revel in our national bigness. Let us be the first to wish a happy birthday to Baby 300 million, whoever you may be.

Just what value is "bigness" anyway? The environmental movement must be partially blamed for such abysmal ignorance to be written in a major newspaper.

The entire issue of domestic overpopulation has fallen off the national radar because of environmentalism's slide into leftist political correctness, largely led by the Sierra Club (which secretly accepted $100 million on the condition that it avoid discussion of immigration as an environmental issue).

We could use a few good environmentalists now.