The Boom No One Wants: The Population Explosion

Each day, I scratch my head, purse my lips and stare out the window from 8,000 feet above Denver, Colorado to view that city spread in all directions for as far as the eye can see. Above it, a gargantuan Brown Cloud-loaded with toxic air pollution expands all the way to the eastern horizon. Off to my left, I-70 provides a 24/7 automobile traffic conveyor belt moving into and out of Denver. At night, I watch the I-25 north/south corridor run like a fast moving river with car lights blazing a steady path to infinity.

As I ponder the immense human drama below, I realize American cities from New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco imitate the spectacle below me with even greater numbers than the 2.5 million in Denver. New York ranks fifth in the world with 16.6 million. On the worldwide scale, Mexico City features 20 million, Mumbai, India sports 18 million and Tokyo, Japan hits 28 million.

Within a short 26 years, the United States expects to add 100 million people by 2035.

All totaled, human beings expect to grow from 6.8 billion in 2009 to reach 7.0 billion in 2011. From there, census reports show humans expanding by another 2.0 and possibly 3.0 billion within 40 years.

STAGGERING INDIFFERENCE OF MEDIA, LEADERS AND CITIZENS IN USA

While you hear and see horrid pictures of starving children in Africa from church groups trying to "Feed the Children" and reports of 18 million adults and children dying from starvation and related conditions annually, you never hear any reports from the media connecting any of it to hyper-population overload.

Obviously, the United States must be immune to such problems experienced around the world, you might think. You would be wrong! On an NBC noon report, in Denver, by Anchor Kyle Dyer, August 18, 2009, she said, "We find 3.5 million homeless Americans in America"."

America also features 13 million children under the age of 12 living below the poverty level and malnourished.

Yet, nobody blinks!

"We must alert and organize the world's people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve the two root causes of our environmental crises - exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources. Over-consumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today." Jacques-Yves Cousteau

TV and radio stations across the USA hammer audiences about Obama's unworkable health care system. They bemoan the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. They grumble about gas prices and escalating electricity costs. Water rates rise and a lack of water in states like California and Georgia bring consternation.

But nowhere do you read about the connection of overpopulation and accelerating problems in America! Like the sacred cows of India, no one will touch them, harm them or stop them from wandering everywhere and anywhere. They drop copious cow urine and solid waste that creates health dangers for all citizens of India. Yet, they remain untouched.

In America, human population numbers add 3.4 million annually to our already unsustainable society-on our way to an added 100 million by 2035. We suffer carrying capacity issues as to water, energy and food-yet not a peep by the media. News outlets report on "greening" our future, hybrid cars and conservation-but they refuse to deal with the granddaddy of all our problems: hyper-population growth.

"As we go from this happy hydrocarbon bubble we have reached now to a renewable energy resource economy, which we do this century, will the "civil" part of civilization survive? As we both know there is no way that alternative energy sources can supply the amount of per capita energy we enjoy now, much less for the 9 billion expected by 2050. And energy is what keeps this game going. We are involved in a Faustian bargain-selling our economic souls for the luxurious life of the moment, but sooner or later the price has to be paid." Walter Youngquist

In an essay by Bromwell Ault, 82, West Palm Beach, Florida, director of www.centerforpublicconscience.org, he said, "It is no exaggeration to say that there is no major issue today that is not exacerbated by the effects of our geometrically increasing population within the confines of our limited physical space. Our rapidly increasing world and national population is the "mother of all" issues and is reflected in its derivatives such as public health, species loss, environmental degradation, aquifer depletion, climate destabilization, economics, diminishing natural resources, population migrations, religious conflicts, political wars, expansion of contagious diseases and many other aspects of our global and local society."

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