"Keeping
the Dream Alive" by Jon Meacham, July 2, 2012, Restoring the American Dream,
Time Magazine
When
European settlers invaded North America, they enjoyed endless resources while
they harnessed the industrial age that allowed the American Dream to
manifest. Journalist Meacham wrote about
"restoring the American Dream" at the end of his report. It will never happen for a growing block of
tens of millions of Americans. Today, with a 315 million population, we suffer
46 million subsisting on food stamps.
Over 13 million children live below the poverty line. Over 14 million cannot secure a job. Big city schools suffer 50 to as high as 70
percent dropout rates which adds to intractable illiteracy akin to third world
countries.
At
the same time, America, via mass immigration, races toward adding a net gain of
138 million people within 38 years. (Source: PEW Hispanic Center, "US
Population Projections" Fogel/Martin, US Census Bureau) Those growing numbers will stress water,
energy, resource and environmental
"carrying capacity" beyond its limits.
Our standard of living and resource use cannot be sustained with endless
population growth. More people will mean
lower wages, lower standard of living and lower quality of life--like China,
India, Mexico and other overpopulated countries.
Human
overpopulation stands as the most important and ignored issue of our time. Meacham didn't deal with it in his report. He
admonished us toward economic growth, but never mentioned environmental
destruction of our finite planet and resources. While we see endless population growth
consequences worldwide, we refuse to
make the connection to America as if we are immune. We are not!
We shall see from such books as Chris Clugston's Scarcity--a comprehensive analysis of
nonrenewable natural resource scarcity and its implications and consequences
for humanity.
He writes, "The prevailing perception among the
American public that we are currently experiencing "temporary hard times"; but
because our "leaders" are implementing the proper mix of economic and political
"fixes", life will be "back to normal" soon. While this perception is
understandable given our historical experience, it is also wrong. There can be
no recovery this time."
Nonrenewable Natural Resources--Industrialized Humanity's
Fundamental Enablers
"Humanity's
industrial lifestyle paradigm--our "American way of life"--is enabled almost
exclusively by enormous and ever-increasing quantities of finite and
non-replenishing nonrenewable natural resources (NNRs)--fossil fuels, metals,
and nonmetallic minerals," said Clugston. "NNRs serve as the raw material inputs
to our industrialized economy, as the building blocks that comprise our
industrialized infrastructure and support systems, and as the primary energy
sources that power our industrialized society.
NNRs comprise approximately 95% of the raw material inputs to the
As
Clugston reports, we cannot continue our civilization as these resources
deplete and vanish. He's not
alone. Dr. Albert Bartlett states the
same in "Arithmetic, Population and Energy". (Source: www.albartlett.org ) Dr. William Catton said the same in his book Overshoot. Dr. Joseph Tainter said it in Collapse of Complex Societies. Dr. Jack Alpert proves it at www.skil.org .
Our
president and Congress can't or won't see it. Most Americans cannot see
the outcome of massive population growth. Nonetheless, this predicament
races toward us at blinding and methodical speed--at our own hands.
"Unlimited
population growth cannot be sustained; you cannot sustain growth in the rates
of consumption of resources. No species can overrun the carrying capacity of a
finite land mass. This Law cannot be repealed and is not negotiable." Dr. Albert Bartlett, www.albartlett.org
, University of Colorado, USA.
How can
we change the outcome? We must change the population-immigration
dynamic. Our country as well as all countries of the world must engage
population policies toward a sustainable future. We must not only
stabilize our populations via birth control, we must gracefully begin to
decline them before Mother Nature does it for us--rather brutally.
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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. His latest book is: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, copies at 1 888 280 7715/ Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, click:
www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com