Wednesday, October 11, 2006

U.S. Population Passes 300 Million Mark And There Are Too Many People On The Planet

"America is the only industrialized nation in the world experiencing significant population growth," Victoria Markham, the director of the Centre for Environment and Population (CEP), says in a new report. "The nation's relatively high rates of population growth, natural resource consumption and pollution combine to create the largest environmental impact, felt both within the nation and around the world." She adds: " The US has become a 'super-size' nation, with lifestyles reflected in super-sized appetites for food, houses, land and resource consumption. 'More of more' seems to characterize modern-day America - more people than any generation before us experienced, more natural resources being utilized to support everyday life and more major impacts on the natural systems that support life on earth."

Some commentators believe this growth has a modest impact on the nation's resources and can bring many benefits. Greg Easterbrook, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based, independent research and policy institute, recently wrote: "What should not worry us about continuing US population growth ... is the question of whether we can handle it - we can," he said.

Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental group also based in Washington, said: "In times past, reaching such a demographic milestone might have been a cause for celebration - in 2006 it is not. Population growth is the ever-expanding denominator that gives each person a shrinking share of the resource pie. It contributes to water shortages, cropland conversion to non-farm uses, traffic congestion, more garbage, overfishing, crowding in national parks, a growing dependence on imported oil and other conditions that diminish the quality of our daily lives."


Read more here.

I would think that most people who have a reasonable amount of intelligence know that over population of the planet is not a good thing, but hey, you never know. Then again, some don't get it at all and think it is all a "myth" of some kind. Yeah, the evidence is overwhelming that it is a "myth".

6.4 billion, no problem, bring em on!

Labels: , ,