By Frosty Wooldridge
Re: Colorado NPR report—11.5 billion gallon shortage annually predicted, 12/1/09
Colorado Public Radio announced on Monday, 12/1/09, that Colorado faces grave water shortages in the coming decades. We can expect an 11.5 billion gallon annual shortfall. With predicted population growth of five to six million by mid century,(Source: Fogel/Martin “US Population Projections”) this state cannot and will not be able to maintain water supplies for humans let alone animals and crops. Mark Koebrich at Channel 9, Denver, NBC News, announced that Denver expects to add two million residents in the coming years.
While Colorado adds 100,000 new residents annually, net gain, America’s overpopulation poster-child State of California adds 1,700 people net gain daily on their way to adding 20 million in 30 years! They add 400 vehicles 24/7! Where do those millions come from? They flee other overpopulated countries from around the globe. Immigration fuels 90 percent of California’s population growth.
Our Colorado River water provides “dry-as-a-bone” states like Arizona, Nevada and California with water that won’t be there with theirs and our population growth in the near future.
Ironically, everyone demands cleaner air, but don’t stop growth. Stop gridlock traffic, but don’t touch growth. Stop species extinction, but never end growth. Let’s stop climate change, but leave growth alone. Stop acid rain, but don’t stop growth. Work on alternative energy, but don’t stop growth. We insist on lower energy and water prices, but don’t stop growth and demand.
In other words, let’s attempt to solve our energy, water and climate change predicament by doing everything but addressing the root cause. That’s like a three pack a day smoker that wants his lung cancer cured, but he said, “I am willing to try any solution to cure my lung cancer as long as you don’t tell me to stop smoking.”
That’s like a 400 pound obese man suffering from heart disease being told to go on a diet, but all he does is let out four more notches on his belt!
Ironically, National Public Radio will report on the consequences of overpopulation, but they NEVER mention the root cause. Why not? What for? How come?
Since the American female averaged 2.03 children since 1970, our own citizens do not cause population growth, so what does? How did we add 100 million people in the past 40 years?
Simple: unrelenting legal and illegal immigration and their offspring.
How will we add the expected 100 million by 2035, which equals 26 years from now? Again, immigration!
S+R=O: Situation plus response=outcome
Cause and effect equal results. If we keep adding population, we cannot keep expanding our finite resources such as water, energy and space. Thus, everything you read about occurring around the world such as starvation and poverty will, at some point, manifest in the United States. No way around it!
As a civilization, we cannot escape S+R=O or cause and effect equals result.
Do we intelligently think we can escape our growing consequences? Apparently! Every governor and businessman in this country advocates growth. Our U.S. Congress injects 2.5 million more people into the USA annually from a line of people growing by 77 million annually worldwide. Americans live in the ‘past’ emotional paradigm that ‘immigration’ built this country.
Listen up folks, our ancestors thought we lived on a flat Earth! They thought the sun rotated around the Earth, etc.
Let’s create new paradigms for the 21st century. Let’s push for a “Colorado Stabilized Population Policy” ; “Colorado Conservation Water Usage Policy” and “Colorado Energy Policy”. Nationally, a “U.S. Sustainable Immigration Policy of 100,000 or less Annually.”
Colorado does not need to add one, two, three, four, five or six million people. No need to add 100 million to the USA. No benefit and only serious consequences will result. We need to shift paradigms toward a sustainable future. For an outstanding video of our ‘predicament’, visit www.albartlett.org
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." - Prof.Al Bartlett
Dr. Bartlett has given his celebrated lecture, Arithmetic, Population and Energy over 1,600 times. His collected writings have been published in the book, "The Essential Exponential! For the Future of Our Planet".
Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?" Prof. Al Bartlett
We are all in this together and we need to change course. www.numbersusa.com ; www.frostywooldridge.com ; www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.fairus.org
##
From: Frosty Wooldridge
This three minute interview with Adam Schrager on “Your Show” May 4, 2008, NBC Channel 9 News, addresses the ramifications of adding 120 million people to USA in 35 years and six million people to Colorado as to water shortages, air pollution, loss of farmland, energy costs and degradation of quality of life. In the interview, Frosty Wooldridge explains the ramifications of adding 120 million people to the USA in 35 years. He advances new concepts such as a “Colorado Carrying Capacity Policy”; “Colorado Environmental Impact Policy”; “Colorado Water Usage Policy”; “Colorado Sustainable Population Policy”. Nationally, the USA needs a "National Sustainable Population Policy" to determine the carrying capacity of this nation for the short and long term. Wooldridge is available for interviews on radio and TV having interviewed on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FOX.
Go to: www.frostywooldridge.com and click on “Audio/Video” tab
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715
Showing posts with label water shortages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water shortages. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
What Americans Think About the Population Debate
Part 1: Raging controversy
By Frosty Wooldridge
At long last, the Economist Magazine offered a debate on its website that garnered thousands of responses. John Seager, president of Population Connection (formerly ZPG), promotes population stabilization and long term decline. He proposes that Americans live within the carrying capacity of the land. Opposing him, MICHAEL LIND, Policy Director, Economic Growth/Next Social Contract Program, New America Foundation, promotes population expansion. Lind encourages unlimited expansion of human population.
Link: http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/151?source=most_commented
Readers from around the world weighed in with their ideas on what our civilization faces:
Emilio V. said, “Population growth is at the heart of most of the major problems we face regarding our continuance as a species. Our insistence on economic models of growth and population expansion will continue to hasten the magnitude of the problems of resource scarcity, carrying capacity, environmental degradation, and the effects of these problems on politics and government control of populations. Alleviating the pressures caused by overpopulation would result in benefits to the majority of the world's people, probably not at first as the older generations will demographically outweigh younger ones, but if growth can be managed (a big IF) benefits would be had for all in the long run. This is the elephant in the room.”
William H. said, “Your article in opednews today is right on point. Thanks for writing. Inasmuch as it speaks the truth, it brings to mind a few historic comments about the truth, namely Shopenhauer's three stages and Churchill's pithy comments. My view, coming from a medical, and by that biologic and evolutionary, background, is that, while people like you articulate the looming tragedy and misery that will surely ensue, the human race, bound to obey its DNA, will without a pause, reproduces itself into a pollution and starvation-driven near-extinction. The charitable and "good" among us will only exacerbate that course by struggling with the endpoints (starvation, pollution and disease) while remaining emotionally incapable of focusing on the root cause, overpopulation. Thank you for your effort. I will keep your website in mind in the event that some venue among my colleagues or other local organizations might present an opportunity to have you present your information. I hope I am wrong, but everything I see from behavior and history says that I am not.”
Onechild wrote, “I am an only child and the father of an only child. I want the best for by daughter and al life on earth. Every added child compromises the quality of life, and perhaps even the opportunity for existence for all species. We will be running out of essential resources just as our population peaks. Nine billion people struggling to "live off of the land", will leave little in their wake. The ONLY solution is to humanely reduce our population down to the 1.5 to two billion that can truly be sustained. The longer we let the population overshoot go on, the faster and farther all life will crash.”
Albert K. said, “Wow, if there were ever a topic that needs wider discussion, it's that of population growth. Do world leaders and local leaders avoid talking about this issue because it's not important? No, they refuse to discuss it because it is can become personal - it's about peoples' personal choices and how they add up. So, what we need to do is include this in every discussion about climate change. And every discussion about pollution. And every discussion about the price of commodities, hunger, species loss, etc. The issue of the world's population is so under-represented, it's slightly crazy. We all need to hear thoughts on this issue - and not just on some obscure on-line forum, but right on the front page of your magazine. Please don't bury this story, help get it out there.”
Ms. S. wrote, “By battening off the world's resources, and congratulating and justifying ourselves with religious texts we composed ourselves, we rapacious apes have obscenely bloated our numbers. Now we're hitting the resources wall. I can't help but think that famine, war, and plague will decimate our populations before the century has ended. I just feel sorry for the other animals and for the wild flowers we have taken, and will take, down with us.”
Arm R. said, “IgnorantAmerican wrote "If we can come up with a plausible way to colonize space, overpopulation will become a thing of the past." IF we had the energy available, and invented technologies that at this point are deemed impossible (or at least very difficult), and if Star Trek was real, then we might be able to do that. I'm not willing to gamble the future of my children on some cultist technological fantasy, though.”
Common S. wrote, “It is normal that every Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, African etc wishes to eventually get the same level of comfort as is available in the richest countries of the world. But the earth resources are not sufficient for nine billion people, or seven billion living in such a way, even we come up with clever solutions like renewable energy and eco-design, for part of our consumption. Since we cannot go backwards, the only way is to go forwards in our control of nature by learning to control the ultimate thing, the number of humans on earth, before nature fights back, and either starves us through food depletion connected to climate change or reduces our numbers through one or more HxNx virus, like any ordinary animal species.”
You might join this debate by your letters to the editor in your local newspapers. You may spur NPR to investigate. You might encourage your local PBS station to run a series. You might email your local radio talk show to invite population/environmental guests onto their shows.
Today, the United States grows as the third fastest country in the world on its way to adding 100 million people via immigration by 2035 and 138 million by 2050. Our civilization lacks the water, energy and resources to maintain our current standard of living. Such a huge population growth guarantees loss of standard of living, quality of life, degraded environment, massive species extinction rates, water scarcity, energy crises and a Pandora’s Box of multiple consequences.
You may ask the question: “Do I want my children living in this country with another added 100 million people.”
I suggest the answer is a loud and definite, “NO!”
##
To take action: First and foremost, join www.numbersusa.com and become one of nearly a million Americans making impact with pre-written faxes and phone calls to change immigration policies toward a stable future. Bi-partisan and highly effective!
Second, join www.thesocialcontract.com for up to date information via the Social Contract Quarterly. Exceptional publication to keep you informed.
www.fairus.org ; www.vdare.com ; www.alipac.us ; www.firecoalition.com ; www.cairco.org ; www.limitstogrowth.com ; www.capsweb.org ; www.populationmedia.org ; www.worldpopulationbalance.org ; LimitsToGrowth.org
America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans by Frosty Wooldridge. This book covers all the ramifications of adding 100 million people to the USA in the next 26 years by 2035.
Visit this site for a rendition of Colorado Governor Lamm’s speech: “How to Destroy America”
http://usawakeup.org/HowToDestroyAmerica.htm
Must see DVD: “Blind Spot”
This movie illustrates America’s future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It’s a brilliant educational movie!
In Canada: Tim Murray,
Director Immigration Watch Canada www.immigrationwatch.org
Vice President Biodiversity First http://biodiversityfirst.googlepages.com/index.htm
Blog http://sinkinglifeboat.blogspot.com
Watch the DVD movie: “Blind Spot”—Exceptional movie with top scientists candidly discussion what we face as a civilization if we continue on our hyper-population growth path. www.blindspotdoc.com
Please visit Annie Leonard at www.storyofstuff.com for a compelling and highly interesting 20 minute video concerning our high consumption, highly wasteful and unsustainable society. She educates and provides avenues for you to make a difference.
Visit this web site by Chris Martenson: http://www.chrismartenson.com/environmental_data
In Colorado: visit www.soprisfoundation.org for information how you can network with like-minded folks to create a more sustainable future for Colorado and other states.
View CNN’s “Planet in Peril” with Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/planet.in.peril/
Ghost of Thomas Paine—compelling video of common sense
http://www.lawatchdog.com/index.html#anchor_2296
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA: D.C.: (202)224-2854 comment@whitehouse.gov
Books to read: “The Long Emergency” by James Howard Kunstler
“Peak Everything” by Richard Heinberg
“Too Many People” by Lindsey Grant
Become a member of “Frosty’s Press Agent Corps” whereby you volunteer a few hours to send out emails to top TV and radio hosts to offer top speakers on America’s overpopulation crisis driven by unending immigration. Email frostyw@juno.com and receive two informational letters showing you exactly what to do.
Roy Beck's "IMMIGRATION BY THE NUMBERS" is the single best educational appreciation of America's future if we allow ourselves to add another 100 million people. Just click on this site for the most sobering experience of your children's future.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4094926727128068265&q=roy+beck&hl=en
Roy Beck gives a graphic presentation of our fate if we continue to allow legal and illegal immigration to swamp this country. If you have children, you will be particular unnerved at their fate. I know Roy Beck personally and his integrity and knowledge stand at the top. Pass this web site 14 minute video far and wide across America to educate everyone you know. We either stop this human tsunami or the future of this country will be much like Rome's. We must, as a nation and a civilization, move to secure our country from this massive, unrelenting population overload from a line that never ends. This will be the most compelling 14 minute video of your life.
Once you see it, go to my web site for action items www.frostywooldridge.com and join www.numbersusa.com to become a weekly faxer of pre written letters and join the phone calling teams.
Bob Woodruff of ABC asked input from all citizens concerning the future of our planet. Go to www.earth2100.tv for a sobering reality check as to what we face and to what I have been writing about for the past 20 years. Our ‘window’ to change to a balanced population and non-polluting energy diminishes every day we listen to irresponsible media and thus ignore the blatant symptoms manifesting all over America and the planet.
From: Frosty Wooldridge
This three minute interview with Adam Schrager on “Your Show” May 4, 2008, NBC Channel 9 News, addresses the ramifications of adding 120 million people to USA in 35 years and six million people to Colorado as to water shortages, air pollution, loss of farmland, energy costs and degradation of quality of life. In the interview, Frosty Wooldridge explains the ramifications of adding 120 million people to the USA in 35 years. He advances new concepts such as a “Colorado Carrying Capacity Policy”; “Colorado Environmental Impact Policy”; “Colorado Water Usage Policy”; “Colorado Sustainable Population Policy”. Nationally, the USA needs a "National Sustainable Population Policy" to determine the carrying capacity of this nation for the short and long term. Wooldridge is available for interviews on radio and TV having interviewed on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FOX.
Go to: www.frostywooldridge.com and click on “Audio/Video” tab
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com
By Frosty Wooldridge
At long last, the Economist Magazine offered a debate on its website that garnered thousands of responses. John Seager, president of Population Connection (formerly ZPG), promotes population stabilization and long term decline. He proposes that Americans live within the carrying capacity of the land. Opposing him, MICHAEL LIND, Policy Director, Economic Growth/Next Social Contract Program, New America Foundation, promotes population expansion. Lind encourages unlimited expansion of human population.
Link: http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/151?source=most_commented
Readers from around the world weighed in with their ideas on what our civilization faces:
Emilio V. said, “Population growth is at the heart of most of the major problems we face regarding our continuance as a species. Our insistence on economic models of growth and population expansion will continue to hasten the magnitude of the problems of resource scarcity, carrying capacity, environmental degradation, and the effects of these problems on politics and government control of populations. Alleviating the pressures caused by overpopulation would result in benefits to the majority of the world's people, probably not at first as the older generations will demographically outweigh younger ones, but if growth can be managed (a big IF) benefits would be had for all in the long run. This is the elephant in the room.”
William H. said, “Your article in opednews today is right on point. Thanks for writing. Inasmuch as it speaks the truth, it brings to mind a few historic comments about the truth, namely Shopenhauer's three stages and Churchill's pithy comments. My view, coming from a medical, and by that biologic and evolutionary, background, is that, while people like you articulate the looming tragedy and misery that will surely ensue, the human race, bound to obey its DNA, will without a pause, reproduces itself into a pollution and starvation-driven near-extinction. The charitable and "good" among us will only exacerbate that course by struggling with the endpoints (starvation, pollution and disease) while remaining emotionally incapable of focusing on the root cause, overpopulation. Thank you for your effort. I will keep your website in mind in the event that some venue among my colleagues or other local organizations might present an opportunity to have you present your information. I hope I am wrong, but everything I see from behavior and history says that I am not.”
Onechild wrote, “I am an only child and the father of an only child. I want the best for by daughter and al life on earth. Every added child compromises the quality of life, and perhaps even the opportunity for existence for all species. We will be running out of essential resources just as our population peaks. Nine billion people struggling to "live off of the land", will leave little in their wake. The ONLY solution is to humanely reduce our population down to the 1.5 to two billion that can truly be sustained. The longer we let the population overshoot go on, the faster and farther all life will crash.”
Albert K. said, “Wow, if there were ever a topic that needs wider discussion, it's that of population growth. Do world leaders and local leaders avoid talking about this issue because it's not important? No, they refuse to discuss it because it is can become personal - it's about peoples' personal choices and how they add up. So, what we need to do is include this in every discussion about climate change. And every discussion about pollution. And every discussion about the price of commodities, hunger, species loss, etc. The issue of the world's population is so under-represented, it's slightly crazy. We all need to hear thoughts on this issue - and not just on some obscure on-line forum, but right on the front page of your magazine. Please don't bury this story, help get it out there.”
Ms. S. wrote, “By battening off the world's resources, and congratulating and justifying ourselves with religious texts we composed ourselves, we rapacious apes have obscenely bloated our numbers. Now we're hitting the resources wall. I can't help but think that famine, war, and plague will decimate our populations before the century has ended. I just feel sorry for the other animals and for the wild flowers we have taken, and will take, down with us.”
Arm R. said, “IgnorantAmerican wrote "If we can come up with a plausible way to colonize space, overpopulation will become a thing of the past." IF we had the energy available, and invented technologies that at this point are deemed impossible (or at least very difficult), and if Star Trek was real, then we might be able to do that. I'm not willing to gamble the future of my children on some cultist technological fantasy, though.”
Common S. wrote, “It is normal that every Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, African etc wishes to eventually get the same level of comfort as is available in the richest countries of the world. But the earth resources are not sufficient for nine billion people, or seven billion living in such a way, even we come up with clever solutions like renewable energy and eco-design, for part of our consumption. Since we cannot go backwards, the only way is to go forwards in our control of nature by learning to control the ultimate thing, the number of humans on earth, before nature fights back, and either starves us through food depletion connected to climate change or reduces our numbers through one or more HxNx virus, like any ordinary animal species.”
You might join this debate by your letters to the editor in your local newspapers. You may spur NPR to investigate. You might encourage your local PBS station to run a series. You might email your local radio talk show to invite population/environmental guests onto their shows.
Today, the United States grows as the third fastest country in the world on its way to adding 100 million people via immigration by 2035 and 138 million by 2050. Our civilization lacks the water, energy and resources to maintain our current standard of living. Such a huge population growth guarantees loss of standard of living, quality of life, degraded environment, massive species extinction rates, water scarcity, energy crises and a Pandora’s Box of multiple consequences.
You may ask the question: “Do I want my children living in this country with another added 100 million people.”
I suggest the answer is a loud and definite, “NO!”
##
To take action: First and foremost, join www.numbersusa.com and become one of nearly a million Americans making impact with pre-written faxes and phone calls to change immigration policies toward a stable future. Bi-partisan and highly effective!
Second, join www.thesocialcontract.com for up to date information via the Social Contract Quarterly. Exceptional publication to keep you informed.
www.fairus.org ; www.vdare.com ; www.alipac.us ; www.firecoalition.com ; www.cairco.org ; www.limitstogrowth.com ; www.capsweb.org ; www.populationmedia.org ; www.worldpopulationbalance.org ; LimitsToGrowth.org
America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans by Frosty Wooldridge. This book covers all the ramifications of adding 100 million people to the USA in the next 26 years by 2035.
Visit this site for a rendition of Colorado Governor Lamm’s speech: “How to Destroy America”
http://usawakeup.org/HowToDestroyAmerica.htm
Must see DVD: “Blind Spot”
This movie illustrates America’s future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It’s a brilliant educational movie!
In Canada: Tim Murray,
Director Immigration Watch Canada www.immigrationwatch.org
Vice President Biodiversity First http://biodiversityfirst.googlepages.com/index.htm
Blog http://sinkinglifeboat.blogspot.com
Watch the DVD movie: “Blind Spot”—Exceptional movie with top scientists candidly discussion what we face as a civilization if we continue on our hyper-population growth path. www.blindspotdoc.com
Please visit Annie Leonard at www.storyofstuff.com for a compelling and highly interesting 20 minute video concerning our high consumption, highly wasteful and unsustainable society. She educates and provides avenues for you to make a difference.
Visit this web site by Chris Martenson: http://www.chrismartenson.com/environmental_data
In Colorado: visit www.soprisfoundation.org for information how you can network with like-minded folks to create a more sustainable future for Colorado and other states.
View CNN’s “Planet in Peril” with Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/planet.in.peril/
Ghost of Thomas Paine—compelling video of common sense
http://www.lawatchdog.com/index.html#anchor_2296
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA: D.C.: (202)224-2854 comment@whitehouse.gov
Books to read: “The Long Emergency” by James Howard Kunstler
“Peak Everything” by Richard Heinberg
“Too Many People” by Lindsey Grant
Become a member of “Frosty’s Press Agent Corps” whereby you volunteer a few hours to send out emails to top TV and radio hosts to offer top speakers on America’s overpopulation crisis driven by unending immigration. Email frostyw@juno.com and receive two informational letters showing you exactly what to do.
Roy Beck's "IMMIGRATION BY THE NUMBERS" is the single best educational appreciation of America's future if we allow ourselves to add another 100 million people. Just click on this site for the most sobering experience of your children's future.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4094926727128068265&q=roy+beck&hl=en
Roy Beck gives a graphic presentation of our fate if we continue to allow legal and illegal immigration to swamp this country. If you have children, you will be particular unnerved at their fate. I know Roy Beck personally and his integrity and knowledge stand at the top. Pass this web site 14 minute video far and wide across America to educate everyone you know. We either stop this human tsunami or the future of this country will be much like Rome's. We must, as a nation and a civilization, move to secure our country from this massive, unrelenting population overload from a line that never ends. This will be the most compelling 14 minute video of your life.
Once you see it, go to my web site for action items www.frostywooldridge.com and join www.numbersusa.com to become a weekly faxer of pre written letters and join the phone calling teams.
Bob Woodruff of ABC asked input from all citizens concerning the future of our planet. Go to www.earth2100.tv for a sobering reality check as to what we face and to what I have been writing about for the past 20 years. Our ‘window’ to change to a balanced population and non-polluting energy diminishes every day we listen to irresponsible media and thus ignore the blatant symptoms manifesting all over America and the planet.
From: Frosty Wooldridge
This three minute interview with Adam Schrager on “Your Show” May 4, 2008, NBC Channel 9 News, addresses the ramifications of adding 120 million people to USA in 35 years and six million people to Colorado as to water shortages, air pollution, loss of farmland, energy costs and degradation of quality of life. In the interview, Frosty Wooldridge explains the ramifications of adding 120 million people to the USA in 35 years. He advances new concepts such as a “Colorado Carrying Capacity Policy”; “Colorado Environmental Impact Policy”; “Colorado Water Usage Policy”; “Colorado Sustainable Population Policy”. Nationally, the USA needs a "National Sustainable Population Policy" to determine the carrying capacity of this nation for the short and long term. Wooldridge is available for interviews on radio and TV having interviewed on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FOX.
Go to: www.frostywooldridge.com and click on “Audio/Video” tab
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com
Monday, April 6, 2009
Part 2: OVERPOPULATION--CASSANDRA SYNDROME RELATING TO THE GOPHER HOLE
By Frosty Wooldridge
In the last column you read and connected the dots from Dr. Albert Bartlett as he asked questions that pertain to the ‘silent assertion’. You know this country cannot keep pretending that we can grow forever. We must stabilize our population sooner rather than later. We cannot apply 20th century solutions that will not solve 21st century challenges.
We cannot expect Third World countries to solve their own exploding populations.
Noted scholar and biologist E.O. Wilson said, “The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to people but to poor ideology and land-use management is sophistic.”
Those of us living in large cities in America can’t help but wonder: where does it all lead? Denver, where I live, suffers a ‘Brown Cloud’ so thick with toxins that every breath fills my lungs with poison air. Our traffic proves a daily nightmare of accidents, road rage and wasted hours sitting in bumper to bumper frustration. I-70 heading into the mountains makes a weekend getaway a nightmare. Returning proves a study in aggravation. Throw in our water shortages and you’ve got quality of life racing to the bottom of the sewer. Our natural gas costs jumped 33 percent this fall after they jumped 30 percent last year. Our electricity costs jumped 13 percent. Gas prices move toward five dollars a gallon. It’s already eight and nine dollars a gallon in Europe.
Because of mass immigration, we expect an added six million people into Colorado by mid century. Texas adds 12 million by 2025 while California adds 20 million by 2035. Water shortages will become water wars!
The 1993 EPA report stands as a perfect example of silent assertion’s denial of population growth as the prime culprit of our cities’ dilemmas: “Where many areas are experiencing rapid urban growth and associated environmental problems…a stronger emphasis on sustainable agricultural practices will be a key element in any long-term solutions to problems in the area.”
How friggin’ stupid is that statement? We cannot keep growing and stop destroying farmland! In Colorado, we pave 100,000 acres annually in the name of ‘growth’. Tell me how you can grow corn, wheat and vegetables on pavement! You cannot solve traffic gridlock by adding thousands of cars to the highways. You cannot solve water shortages by adding more people, lawns and toilets to flush.
The respected journalist Bill Moyers introduced another aspect of overpopulation when he asked science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, “What happens to the idea of the dignity of the human species if population growth continues at the present rate?”
Asimov replied, “It will be completely destroyed. I like to use what I call the bathroom metaphor: if two people live in an apartment and there are two bathrooms, then both have freedom of the bathroom. You can go to the bathroom anytime you want and stay as long as you want for whatever you need. Everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up times for each person, you have to bang on the door. “Aren’t you through yet?” And so on!”
Asimov made what may become a profound observation as we head into further overpopulation dilemmas: “In the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive overpopulation. Convenience and decency cannot survive overpopulation. As you jam more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies, the more there are, the less one person matters.”
Does anyone here think Chinese and Indian citizens enjoy their predicament? If they enjoy it, why are they fleeing their countries?
Thus, you might ponder a few of Dr. Bartlett’s Laws of Sustainability:
First Law: Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. Persons who advocate population growth are advocating unsustainability. Such persons mislead themselves and others.
Second Law: In a society with a growing population, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability. This is caused by the phenomenon of ‘population momentum’.
Third Law: The response time of populations to changes in human fertility rate is 70 years. In other words, if we want to stabilize the population by mid 21st century, we must make changes now. For the record, the US created a stable society at 2.03 fertility level from 1970, but immigration at two to three million annually negates it.
Fourth Law: The size of population that can be sustained (carrying capacity) and the sustainable average standard of living of the population are inversely related to one another. The higher the standard of living one wishes to sustain, the more urgent it is to stabilize population growth.
Fifth Law: Sustainability requires that the size of the population be less than or equal to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for the desired standard of living. The rate of destruction of ecosystems increases as the rate of growth of the population increases.
Sixth Law: The benefits of population growth and consumption accrue to a few. The costs are borne by the ‘many’ average citizens. That’s why politicians and developers promote growth along with real estate people. They move to other havens where they escape the ‘results’ of their labors.
Ninth Law: When large efforts are made to improve efficiency, the results are wiped out by added population.
Fourteenth Law: If humans fail to stop population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources, nature will stop these growths. By contemporary standards, nature’s method of stopping growth is cruel and inhumane.
One look at the March 14, 2005 Time Magazine piece that reported eight million people die annually of starvation world wide—offers a window into our future. Additionally, you can see it on many of the religious channels where they solicit money for food for millions of starving children in Africa. Notice they offer food which creates more children, so they never solve the core issue of too many humans. They need to offer birth control devices, for, without birth control, all their efforts and your money become useless as those populations explode by 85 million annually.
Nonetheless, I’ll receive hundreds of emails countering this column by well meaning people who operate via emotions, hopes and faith that it will turn out okay. Their propensities fall into the “Cassandra Syndrome”: The Cassandra Syndrome is a term applied to predictions of doom about the future that are not believed, but upon later reflection turn out to be correct. This denotes a psychological tendency among people to disbelieve inescapably bad news, often through denial. The person making the prediction is caught in the dilemma of knowing what is going to happen but not being able to resolve the problem. The origin of the name is derived from Cassandra, who, using her prescience, foresaw the demise of Troy. No one believed her.
What happened to Bangladesh, China and India, happened! Their problems relating to overpopulation create a miserable life for their citizens. As to what is happening in Amsterdam, Holland; Paris, France and Sydney, Australia from immigrating incompatible Third World cultures and languages, which resulted in violence, happened! They dug a ‘gopher hole’ they can’t escape because the ‘beast’ is inside them. It WILL and it IS happening in America unless we change course before the ‘beast’ is too big for us to stop.
I’ve covered the major laws. If you want a full and terribly sobering copy of this report, call 1 800 352 4843 or www.thesocialcontract.com. Ask for the Fall 2007 Quarterly.
We can be docile passengers on the Titanic by silently suffering our fate, or, we can stand up and speak out to the captain and crew of our ship (president and Congress). We are not lemmings or other helpless animals willing to be led over a cliff. I’m confident that millions of Americans refuse the ‘silent assertion’ mode of denial. They know their actions will be the only thing that saves America from drowning by mass immigration. They know their actions create change for their children like their parents’ action in the last century gave them the wonders of a country that provides “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
##
Bob Woodruff of ABC asked input from all citizens concerning the future of our planet. Go to www.earth2100.tv for a sobering reality check as to what we face and to what I have been writing about for the past 20 years. Our ‘window’ to change to a balanced population and non-polluting energy diminishes every day we ignore the symptoms manifesting all over America and the planet.
To take action: www.numbersusa.com ; www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.fairus.org ; www.capsweb.org ; www.balance.org ; www.populationmedia.org; www.worldpopulationbalance.org
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com
In the last column you read and connected the dots from Dr. Albert Bartlett as he asked questions that pertain to the ‘silent assertion’. You know this country cannot keep pretending that we can grow forever. We must stabilize our population sooner rather than later. We cannot apply 20th century solutions that will not solve 21st century challenges.
We cannot expect Third World countries to solve their own exploding populations.
Noted scholar and biologist E.O. Wilson said, “The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to people but to poor ideology and land-use management is sophistic.”
Those of us living in large cities in America can’t help but wonder: where does it all lead? Denver, where I live, suffers a ‘Brown Cloud’ so thick with toxins that every breath fills my lungs with poison air. Our traffic proves a daily nightmare of accidents, road rage and wasted hours sitting in bumper to bumper frustration. I-70 heading into the mountains makes a weekend getaway a nightmare. Returning proves a study in aggravation. Throw in our water shortages and you’ve got quality of life racing to the bottom of the sewer. Our natural gas costs jumped 33 percent this fall after they jumped 30 percent last year. Our electricity costs jumped 13 percent. Gas prices move toward five dollars a gallon. It’s already eight and nine dollars a gallon in Europe.
Because of mass immigration, we expect an added six million people into Colorado by mid century. Texas adds 12 million by 2025 while California adds 20 million by 2035. Water shortages will become water wars!
The 1993 EPA report stands as a perfect example of silent assertion’s denial of population growth as the prime culprit of our cities’ dilemmas: “Where many areas are experiencing rapid urban growth and associated environmental problems…a stronger emphasis on sustainable agricultural practices will be a key element in any long-term solutions to problems in the area.”
How friggin’ stupid is that statement? We cannot keep growing and stop destroying farmland! In Colorado, we pave 100,000 acres annually in the name of ‘growth’. Tell me how you can grow corn, wheat and vegetables on pavement! You cannot solve traffic gridlock by adding thousands of cars to the highways. You cannot solve water shortages by adding more people, lawns and toilets to flush.
The respected journalist Bill Moyers introduced another aspect of overpopulation when he asked science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, “What happens to the idea of the dignity of the human species if population growth continues at the present rate?”
Asimov replied, “It will be completely destroyed. I like to use what I call the bathroom metaphor: if two people live in an apartment and there are two bathrooms, then both have freedom of the bathroom. You can go to the bathroom anytime you want and stay as long as you want for whatever you need. Everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up times for each person, you have to bang on the door. “Aren’t you through yet?” And so on!”
Asimov made what may become a profound observation as we head into further overpopulation dilemmas: “In the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive overpopulation. Convenience and decency cannot survive overpopulation. As you jam more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies, the more there are, the less one person matters.”
Does anyone here think Chinese and Indian citizens enjoy their predicament? If they enjoy it, why are they fleeing their countries?
Thus, you might ponder a few of Dr. Bartlett’s Laws of Sustainability:
First Law: Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained. Persons who advocate population growth are advocating unsustainability. Such persons mislead themselves and others.
Second Law: In a society with a growing population, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to the condition of sustainability. This is caused by the phenomenon of ‘population momentum’.
Third Law: The response time of populations to changes in human fertility rate is 70 years. In other words, if we want to stabilize the population by mid 21st century, we must make changes now. For the record, the US created a stable society at 2.03 fertility level from 1970, but immigration at two to three million annually negates it.
Fourth Law: The size of population that can be sustained (carrying capacity) and the sustainable average standard of living of the population are inversely related to one another. The higher the standard of living one wishes to sustain, the more urgent it is to stabilize population growth.
Fifth Law: Sustainability requires that the size of the population be less than or equal to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for the desired standard of living. The rate of destruction of ecosystems increases as the rate of growth of the population increases.
Sixth Law: The benefits of population growth and consumption accrue to a few. The costs are borne by the ‘many’ average citizens. That’s why politicians and developers promote growth along with real estate people. They move to other havens where they escape the ‘results’ of their labors.
Ninth Law: When large efforts are made to improve efficiency, the results are wiped out by added population.
Fourteenth Law: If humans fail to stop population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources, nature will stop these growths. By contemporary standards, nature’s method of stopping growth is cruel and inhumane.
One look at the March 14, 2005 Time Magazine piece that reported eight million people die annually of starvation world wide—offers a window into our future. Additionally, you can see it on many of the religious channels where they solicit money for food for millions of starving children in Africa. Notice they offer food which creates more children, so they never solve the core issue of too many humans. They need to offer birth control devices, for, without birth control, all their efforts and your money become useless as those populations explode by 85 million annually.
Nonetheless, I’ll receive hundreds of emails countering this column by well meaning people who operate via emotions, hopes and faith that it will turn out okay. Their propensities fall into the “Cassandra Syndrome”: The Cassandra Syndrome is a term applied to predictions of doom about the future that are not believed, but upon later reflection turn out to be correct. This denotes a psychological tendency among people to disbelieve inescapably bad news, often through denial. The person making the prediction is caught in the dilemma of knowing what is going to happen but not being able to resolve the problem. The origin of the name is derived from Cassandra, who, using her prescience, foresaw the demise of Troy. No one believed her.
What happened to Bangladesh, China and India, happened! Their problems relating to overpopulation create a miserable life for their citizens. As to what is happening in Amsterdam, Holland; Paris, France and Sydney, Australia from immigrating incompatible Third World cultures and languages, which resulted in violence, happened! They dug a ‘gopher hole’ they can’t escape because the ‘beast’ is inside them. It WILL and it IS happening in America unless we change course before the ‘beast’ is too big for us to stop.
I’ve covered the major laws. If you want a full and terribly sobering copy of this report, call 1 800 352 4843 or www.thesocialcontract.com. Ask for the Fall 2007 Quarterly.
We can be docile passengers on the Titanic by silently suffering our fate, or, we can stand up and speak out to the captain and crew of our ship (president and Congress). We are not lemmings or other helpless animals willing to be led over a cliff. I’m confident that millions of Americans refuse the ‘silent assertion’ mode of denial. They know their actions will be the only thing that saves America from drowning by mass immigration. They know their actions create change for their children like their parents’ action in the last century gave them the wonders of a country that provides “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
##
Bob Woodruff of ABC asked input from all citizens concerning the future of our planet. Go to www.earth2100.tv for a sobering reality check as to what we face and to what I have been writing about for the past 20 years. Our ‘window’ to change to a balanced population and non-polluting energy diminishes every day we ignore the symptoms manifesting all over America and the planet.
To take action: www.numbersusa.com ; www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.fairus.org ; www.capsweb.org ; www.balance.org ; www.populationmedia.org; www.worldpopulationbalance.org
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com
Part 1: HYPER-POPULATION GROWTH—HOW FAR DOWN THE GOPHER HOLE?
By Frosty Wooldridge
America added 106 million people from 1965 to 2006. Demographic experts showed 300 million people living in America in October 2006. They expect an added 100 million by 2035. The consequences grow irreversible and unsolvable.
As population rises, carrying capacity drops. What is “carrying capacity?” For a quick rendition, it means, “The amount resources on a given piece of land to allow long term sustainable human, plant and animal life.”
If animals or humans exceed ‘carrying capacity’ of any given land mass, they crash in numbers by various means, i.e., famine, war and disease. Garrett Hardin, noted biologist called it, “The Tragedy of the Commons.”
For the 6.7 billion humans in the 21st century, oil resources will define that capacity quotient. Noted Geologist Walter Youngquist said, “This is going to be an interesting decade, for the perfect storm is brewing—energy, immigration and oil imports. China grows in direct confrontation for remaining oil. I think the USA is on a big, slippery downhill slope. Will the thin veneer of civilization survive?” To see how fast we grow, visit www.populationmedia.com
Youngquist continued, “Beyond oil, population is the number one problem of the 21st century, for when oil is gone as we know and use it today—and it WILL be gone—population will still be here.”
The world uses 84 million barrels daily! That’s 42 gallons to a drum! By mid century, use will top 120 million barrels per day. It will run out because limited reserves in the ground.
Dr. Albert Bartlett of the University of Colorado said, “Present population growth rate is putting our children at risk. They will experience holes in the ozone causing serious biological effects on plants and humans. World ocean fisheries are collapsing from endless plundering. Two thirds of the world’s people will suffer from water shortages by 2025. It is not possible to sustain population growth or growth in rates of consumption of resources.”
Where is the worst overpopulation problem on the planet according to Dr. Bartlett? “It’s right here in the United States!”
Dr. Bartlett said, “Can you think of any problem, on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way, aided, assisted, or advanced, by having continued population growth—at the local level, the state level, the national level, or globally?”
How many people in the United States are enough? How far down the gopher hole do we want to dig ourselves? At what point is enough—too much? If we shut down the borders today with zero immigration, while enjoying our sustainable 2.03 fertility level of American women on average, we would still grow via ‘population momentum’ by an added 40 million.
In other words, we’re painting ourselves into a perilous corner. Once the numbers manifest, our society will suffer irreversible consequences with unsolvable problems. One visit to Los Angeles will show you they suffer toxic air, dwindling safe drinking water, gridlock to the point of insanity, water shortages, endless highways and housing development. Consider San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Denver and all other large cities grow beyond the bounds of reason!
Sustainable growth, slow growth, managed growth, smart growth and all other kinds of growth are oxymoronic. There is no such thing as sustainable growth. Why? All growth exceeds carrying capacity at some point. In other words, the bubble bursts, the dam breaks, the glass spills, the balloon pops and the red-lined engine blows up.
“Population growth is given as a cause of the problems identified, but eliminating the cause is not mentioned as a solution,” Bartlett said. “We are prescribing aspirin for cancer.”
At the current rate of growth driven by immigration, America will double its population just past mid century—from 300,000,000 to 600,000,000. As long as the underlying cause of a problem is not dealt with, we, and our leaders, as a nation, perpetuate a falsehood which Mark Twain called ‘silent-assertion’: “Almost all lies are acts,” he said. “I am speaking of the lie of ‘silent-assertion’. It would not be possible for a humane and intelligent person to invent a rational excuse for slavery; yet you will remember that in the early days of emancipation in the North, agitators got small help from anyone. They could not break the universal stillness that reigned from the pulpit and press all the way down to the bottom of society--the clammy stillness created and maintained by the lie of silent-assertion that there wasn’t anything going on in which intelligent people were interested.
“The conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity (unlimited growth) or sham (unlimited immigration), never in the interest of the respectable (average citizens). It is the most timid and shabby of all lies. The silent-assertion is that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop.”
‘Silent-assertion’ worked until it brought China, India and Bangladesh to their knees with sheer misery of numbers. How do I know? I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia and other overpopulated regions. China, even with enforced one child per family, grows by 10 million annually. India, with 1.1 billion, adds even more yearly. Bangladesh suffers 144 million people in a landmass the size of Iowa. Do you see anyone racing to immigrate to those havens of human overload?
What I ask is, do we as a nation, want millions upon millions of added people from countries already exceeding their ‘carrying capacity’? Legal immigration proves as dangerous as illegal. To think otherwise will allow that ‘silent-assertion’ to create another China or India in America. Just imagine Iowa with 129 million people and all the rest of the United States with THAT kind of population density!
Albert Einstein said, “The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them.”
We are no longer living in the 20th century America with only 75 million people riding horses or trains. We’re in the 21st century with cars and jets and 300 million people added to the 6.7 billion on the planet--creating horrific environmental consequences. Again, we had to change our ‘silent-assertion’ about slavery and we MUST change our ‘silent-assertion’ about population growth and economic growth. If we continue steaming full speed ahead like the captain of the Titanic, our children will be on board when we hit the peak oil, global warming, ozone holes, collapsing species, air pollution and other commensurate problems related to the overpopulation “iceberg.” Most died on the Titanic because there weren’t enough life boats.
Maybe some of us choose to maintain our ‘silent-assertion’ in the face of growing consequences, but how can any parent or grandparent be that callous to their children? That gopher hole drops mighty deep!
Take action: www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.numbersusa.com ; ; www.fairus.org ; www.firecoalition.com ;; www.capsweb.org ; www.balance.org
##
Frosty Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents and six times across the United States in the past 30 years. He presents a program to colleges, conferences, high schools and civic clubs around the country: “THE COMING POPULATION CRISIS IN AMERICA: WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT”. His published books include: "HANDBOOK FOR TOURING BICYCLISTS" ; “STRIKE THREE! TAKE YOUR BASE” ; “IMMIGRATION’S UNARMED INVASION: DEADLY CONSEQUENCES” ; “MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURE TO ALASKA: INTO THE WIND—A TEEN NOVEL” ; “BICYCLING AROUND THE WORLD: TIRE TRACKS FOR YOUR IMAGINATION” ; “AN EXTREME ENCOUNTER: ANTARCTICA”. His next book: “TILTING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY INTO A SWAMP”. He lives in Denver, Colorado. frostyw@juno.com www.frostywooldridge.com
America added 106 million people from 1965 to 2006. Demographic experts showed 300 million people living in America in October 2006. They expect an added 100 million by 2035. The consequences grow irreversible and unsolvable.
As population rises, carrying capacity drops. What is “carrying capacity?” For a quick rendition, it means, “The amount resources on a given piece of land to allow long term sustainable human, plant and animal life.”
If animals or humans exceed ‘carrying capacity’ of any given land mass, they crash in numbers by various means, i.e., famine, war and disease. Garrett Hardin, noted biologist called it, “The Tragedy of the Commons.”
For the 6.7 billion humans in the 21st century, oil resources will define that capacity quotient. Noted Geologist Walter Youngquist said, “This is going to be an interesting decade, for the perfect storm is brewing—energy, immigration and oil imports. China grows in direct confrontation for remaining oil. I think the USA is on a big, slippery downhill slope. Will the thin veneer of civilization survive?” To see how fast we grow, visit www.populationmedia.com
Youngquist continued, “Beyond oil, population is the number one problem of the 21st century, for when oil is gone as we know and use it today—and it WILL be gone—population will still be here.”
The world uses 84 million barrels daily! That’s 42 gallons to a drum! By mid century, use will top 120 million barrels per day. It will run out because limited reserves in the ground.
Dr. Albert Bartlett of the University of Colorado said, “Present population growth rate is putting our children at risk. They will experience holes in the ozone causing serious biological effects on plants and humans. World ocean fisheries are collapsing from endless plundering. Two thirds of the world’s people will suffer from water shortages by 2025. It is not possible to sustain population growth or growth in rates of consumption of resources.”
Where is the worst overpopulation problem on the planet according to Dr. Bartlett? “It’s right here in the United States!”
Dr. Bartlett said, “Can you think of any problem, on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way, aided, assisted, or advanced, by having continued population growth—at the local level, the state level, the national level, or globally?”
How many people in the United States are enough? How far down the gopher hole do we want to dig ourselves? At what point is enough—too much? If we shut down the borders today with zero immigration, while enjoying our sustainable 2.03 fertility level of American women on average, we would still grow via ‘population momentum’ by an added 40 million.
In other words, we’re painting ourselves into a perilous corner. Once the numbers manifest, our society will suffer irreversible consequences with unsolvable problems. One visit to Los Angeles will show you they suffer toxic air, dwindling safe drinking water, gridlock to the point of insanity, water shortages, endless highways and housing development. Consider San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Denver and all other large cities grow beyond the bounds of reason!
Sustainable growth, slow growth, managed growth, smart growth and all other kinds of growth are oxymoronic. There is no such thing as sustainable growth. Why? All growth exceeds carrying capacity at some point. In other words, the bubble bursts, the dam breaks, the glass spills, the balloon pops and the red-lined engine blows up.
“Population growth is given as a cause of the problems identified, but eliminating the cause is not mentioned as a solution,” Bartlett said. “We are prescribing aspirin for cancer.”
At the current rate of growth driven by immigration, America will double its population just past mid century—from 300,000,000 to 600,000,000. As long as the underlying cause of a problem is not dealt with, we, and our leaders, as a nation, perpetuate a falsehood which Mark Twain called ‘silent-assertion’: “Almost all lies are acts,” he said. “I am speaking of the lie of ‘silent-assertion’. It would not be possible for a humane and intelligent person to invent a rational excuse for slavery; yet you will remember that in the early days of emancipation in the North, agitators got small help from anyone. They could not break the universal stillness that reigned from the pulpit and press all the way down to the bottom of society--the clammy stillness created and maintained by the lie of silent-assertion that there wasn’t anything going on in which intelligent people were interested.
“The conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity (unlimited growth) or sham (unlimited immigration), never in the interest of the respectable (average citizens). It is the most timid and shabby of all lies. The silent-assertion is that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop.”
‘Silent-assertion’ worked until it brought China, India and Bangladesh to their knees with sheer misery of numbers. How do I know? I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia and other overpopulated regions. China, even with enforced one child per family, grows by 10 million annually. India, with 1.1 billion, adds even more yearly. Bangladesh suffers 144 million people in a landmass the size of Iowa. Do you see anyone racing to immigrate to those havens of human overload?
What I ask is, do we as a nation, want millions upon millions of added people from countries already exceeding their ‘carrying capacity’? Legal immigration proves as dangerous as illegal. To think otherwise will allow that ‘silent-assertion’ to create another China or India in America. Just imagine Iowa with 129 million people and all the rest of the United States with THAT kind of population density!
Albert Einstein said, “The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them.”
We are no longer living in the 20th century America with only 75 million people riding horses or trains. We’re in the 21st century with cars and jets and 300 million people added to the 6.7 billion on the planet--creating horrific environmental consequences. Again, we had to change our ‘silent-assertion’ about slavery and we MUST change our ‘silent-assertion’ about population growth and economic growth. If we continue steaming full speed ahead like the captain of the Titanic, our children will be on board when we hit the peak oil, global warming, ozone holes, collapsing species, air pollution and other commensurate problems related to the overpopulation “iceberg.” Most died on the Titanic because there weren’t enough life boats.
Maybe some of us choose to maintain our ‘silent-assertion’ in the face of growing consequences, but how can any parent or grandparent be that callous to their children? That gopher hole drops mighty deep!
Take action: www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.numbersusa.com ; ; www.fairus.org ; www.firecoalition.com ;; www.capsweb.org ; www.balance.org
##
Frosty Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents and six times across the United States in the past 30 years. He presents a program to colleges, conferences, high schools and civic clubs around the country: “THE COMING POPULATION CRISIS IN AMERICA: WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT”. His published books include: "HANDBOOK FOR TOURING BICYCLISTS" ; “STRIKE THREE! TAKE YOUR BASE” ; “IMMIGRATION’S UNARMED INVASION: DEADLY CONSEQUENCES” ; “MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURE TO ALASKA: INTO THE WIND—A TEEN NOVEL” ; “BICYCLING AROUND THE WORLD: TIRE TRACKS FOR YOUR IMAGINATION” ; “AN EXTREME ENCOUNTER: ANTARCTICA”. His next book: “TILTING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY INTO A SWAMP”. He lives in Denver, Colorado. frostyw@juno.com www.frostywooldridge.com
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