Article: Earth day failed again 39 years later

“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.”

Harvard scholar and biologist E.O. Wilson

Earth Day, April 22, 2009, galloped into town like John Wayne, but busted leather hightailing away like Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the Hole in the Wall Gang. It arrived with hope and left in denial! Earth Day brought projects promoting the “Green Revolution” that will save humanity, but it failed, as it has for 39 years to address the underlying cause of every environmental problem humanity faces.

Instead of facing our staggering planet eyeball to eyeball, we avoided any meaningful discussion.The U.S. added 100 million people in the past 40 years. It's on its way to adding another 100 million in 26 years! The planet adds 1.0 billion people every 13 years!

Nonetheless, a few intrepid writers and astute speakers sounded the alarm loud and clear! You almost cannot help wondering how or why an educated nation like the United States wants to follow in the footsteps of India, China and Bangladesh. How long before Los Angeles resembles Mexico City with 24 million people gasping for a breath of fresh air? Can the leaders and citizens of the U.S. be THAT stupid? As the third fastest growing nation in the world, yes, Mr. Spock, Americans don’t show enough collective intelligence to address hyper-population growth let alone stabilize it.

Thanks to Jennie Goldie for this article from Science Daily. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090418075752.htm

“Worst Environmental Problem? Overpopulation, Experts Say” April 20, 2009)

“Overpopulation is the world’s top environmental issue, followed closely by climate change and the need to develop renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels, according to a survey of the faculty at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF),” said Jennie Goldie. “Just in time for Earth Day April 22nd, the faculty at the college, at which environmental issues are the sole focus, was asked to help prioritize the planet’s most pressing environmental problems.

Overpopulation came out on top, with several professors pointing out its ties to other problems that rank high on the list.”

“Overpopulation is the only problem,” said Dr. Charles A. Hall, a systems ecologist. “If we had 100 million people on Earth — or better, 10 million — no others would be a problem.”

Instead, we feature 6.7 billion humans, watch the population clock add the numbers at these sites: www.populationmedia.org ; www.worldpopulationbalance.org. Humans grow by a net gain of 77 million annually. But we fail to see one world leader shed a blink for humanity’s plight!

Dr. Allan P. Drew, a forest ecologist, put it this way: “Overpopulation means that we are putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than we should, just because more people are doing it and this is related to overconsumption by people in general, especially in the ‘developed’ world.”

“But, whether developed or developing,” said Dr. Susan Senecah, who teaches the history of the American environmental movement, “everyone is encouraged to ‘want’ and perceive that they ‘need’ to consume beyond the planet’s ability to provide.”

While the USA faces terrific water shortages in California, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and other states—it adds 3.1 million every year on its way to 100 million added citizens in 26 years. Never mind that immigration drives the population juggernaut that causes every crisis facing Americans! Never mind the reason causing unending immigration: millions of third world migrants flee their overloaded countries to save their own lives. In the process, they overload host countries. Great Britain suffers 61 million people in a landmass the size of Oregon, but expects and added 11 million immigrants within two decades. Is that crazy or what?!

What do we face? You name it—gridlock, air pollution, bio-diversity decline, crowding, loss of quality of life, acid rain, climate change, oceans poisoned and much more.

“Experimenting with the earth’s climate and chemistry has great risks,” said Dr. Thomas E. Amidon, who invented a process for removing energy-rich sugars from wood and fermenting those sugars into ethanol. “This is a driver in climate change and loss of biodiversity and is a fundamental problem underlying our need to strive for sustainability.”

“Rounding out the top 10 issues on the ESF list are overconsumption,” said Goldie, “The need for more sustainable practices worldwide, the growing need for energy conservation, the need for humans to see themselves as part of the global ecosystem, overall carbon dioxide emissions, the need to develop ways to produce consumer products from renewable resources, and dwindling fresh water resources.