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Reprinted from the Red Wing, MN Republican Eagle

Wednesday 12 June, 2002

Biker puts spotlight on world population

He rode his bicycle into Red Wing Monday night nearing the end of a 780-mile trip, but Ben Stallings wasn't on vacation. In fact, his bicycle is his main form of transportation where he lives in Minneapolis.

The former computer professional left home three weeks ago and headed to Iowa for a trip through Mankato, Minn., and Iowa City, Iowa, before returning to Minneapolis.

Stallings, chief operating officer of Minneapolis-based World Population Balance, is hoping to promote awareness about slowing population growth by illustrating a lifestyle he said is at least as fulfilling as any other. The only differences are that he doesn't own a car and has not yet had children.

According to Stallings, population pressure here is due as much to resource consumption as to reproduction.

He said he hoped to point out that it is possible to avoid overusing resources such as shelter and transportation.

Stallings also advocates postponing parenthood to keep population growth down.

While uncontrolled population growth is the major problem in Third World countries, U.S. citizens are to blame for using too many natural resources, he said.

"I'm concerned that world population growth is one of the biggest news stories in the history of the world," he said before leaving this morning. He expected to arrive in Minneapolis by 5 p.m. today.

Despite what he called "incredible growth" to a population of 6.2 billion, many people don't notice the change. "It's been happening our whole lives," he said.