"Overpopulation in the United States will become THE single greatest
issue facing Americans in the 21st century. We either solve it
proactively or nature will solve it brutally for us via water
shortages, energy crisis, air pollution, gridlock, species extinction
and worse." - Frosty Wooldridge
Overpopulation
Too Many People - Too Few Solutions?
by Frosty Wooldridge
Albert Einstein wrote, "The problems that exist in the world today
cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."
Nonetheless, this country staggers forward with 'solutions' that
accelerate America's population problems.
In the past 10 years, the world added 880 million people. America
added 33 million and California added six million - on its way from 35
million to 55 million in the next 25 years. Good luck, Arnold! Like
California, many states found themselves inundated with sprawl,
gridlock, rising home prices, new forms of crime and diseases. Dozens
of foreign languages, causing confusion and conflicts, migrated into
America's schools. Today, America stands at 292 million and grows by
3.3 million per year. In 47 years at mid-century, America will add 200
million which will average four million people per state.
An average of 8,200 people are added to our country every day via
annual net gains in US births at 1.0 million and immigration at 2.3
million--legal, illegal and their births. Soon past the mid-century,
those 200 million more Americans will be struggling for dwindling
resources, water, food and a diminishing quality of life. In a western
state like Colorado or Arizona, a drought in 2050 will become a
DISASTER along with many other consequences. When one state suffers
such a monumental crisis, all other states will be affected in time.
For graphic examples, one need only look at India and China. In a
recent speech, Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said, "In my
country, 4 million people are born in the streets, live in the streets
and die in the streets-never having used a toilet or shower." If
massive population is so good, why is India so poor? Even more
sobering is China's plight at 1.3 billion and growing at 12 million
per year.
Overpopulation will become the 'plague of the 21st century'.
Where is America headed? Do we want such a legacy for our own
children? According to 60 Minutes, we have one million homeless
children struggling in our inner cities today. Why can't we take care
of their needs even today? What will be the fate of another 200
million people who create homeless children? How many is too many and
when will Americans address itself to that fact? Who possesses the
courage to step up to the reality of overpopulation/consumption/
pollution in America-in the long term? At this time, no one.
Politicians scurry like cockroaches at the mention of population
stabilization. Corporations demand larger markets as if nonrenewable
resources will appear out of thin air. They sacrifice the future of
our children. Wake up! We're like a runaway freight train with no
brakes headed toward a rock wall.
Americans face consequences in every corner of our nation. Our East
and West coasts, teeming with too many people, strive to deal with
escalating water, air and land dilemmas. Deep-water wells, already
polluted with industrial chemicals from farmers and manufacturing
plants dumping poisons-are drying up. Acid rains pound our lakes with
chemicals. Our cities create thick clouds where millions of children
breathe carcinogens with every breath. Farmers kill microbes in the
soil with fertilizers and pesticides - leaving us with contaminated
foods for eating. Each year, 1.3 million new cancers are detected in
our US citizens--an epidemic of our own making.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it 50 years ago; "We must prevent human tragedy
rather than run around trying to save ourselves after an event has
already occurred. Unfortunately, history clearly shows that we arrive
at catastrophe by failing to meet the situation, by failing to act
when we should have acted. The opportunity passes us by and the next
disaster is always more difficult and compounded than the last one."
By failing to act now, what kinds of consequences will we as a nation
face when we hit 1/2 billion people? States like Colorado will add
100% more people to their already drought prone state. That's 100%
more cars, etc. In the US with 200 million more people, that's 77%
more traffic, 77% added planes in the air, 77% increased pollution,
77% faster uses of already such limited resources as gasoline. For
example: we're paving over 3000 acres of land each day for homes,
roads, and malls. With each new added American, 12.6 acres of
wilderness is plowed up to support that person. In the next 10 years,
according to the National Academy of Sciences, 2,500 plants and
animals will become extinct in the USA because of habitat destruction
via population growth. Why aren't we addressing the moral and
biological consequences of such horrific extinction rates? When you
add global warming, ocean fisheries collapsing, acid rain, ozone
destruction, drought, contaminated water supplies, poisoning and
sterilization of the soils by insecticides and fertilizers--we're
building unimaginable consequences........
Continues in depth detail... @ :
http://www.frostywooldridge.com/overpop/overpop.html