The nation’s water supplies are beginning to strain under the constantly increasing demands generated by population growth. Ground water is being pumped faster than it is being replenished. Underground aquifers, the source of about 60 percent of the U.S.’s fresh water, are being depleted at the same time that surface water in lakes and rivers is being stressed by increasing population demands.
Water shortages, which used to be limited to the dry Western states, have begun popping up throughout the U.S. Even places that once seemed to have limitless supplies of water are finding themselves forced to impose water usage restrictions and are facing worrisome predictions of shortages within just a few years.
As water becomes more and more precious, conflicts over its allocation are growing. Increased demand for municipal and industrial water use often means buying up and drying out irrigated farmlands, leaving farmers and ranchers without water. Meanwhile, conservationists are demanding that the water stay in rivers to support the fish and wildlife who depend on it.
These problems will worsen as the U.S. population continues to expand.
What you can do:
Write to national environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and ask them to make U.S. overpopulation a focus of their efforts. By ignoring the population problem right here at home, national environmental groups are sentencing America to a dry future.
Since 1972, NPG has been the leading organization in the movement for a sound population policy that recognizes the crucial link between population growth, environmental degradation, and a declining quality of life. This year we celebrate our 30th anniversary.
In honor of this landmark, NPG is reprinting the seminal publication Breeding Ourselves to Death, by Lawrence Lader, a renowned population activist. The book, originally published in 1971, chronicles the early efforts of a small number of dedicated activists who were able to move overpopulation problems to the top of the U.S. domestic agenda.
In reprinting this book, it is our hope that a new generation of activists will be inspired to take action and help refocus attention on the growing population crisis.
Below, we have reprinted Paul Ehrlich’s original foreword to the book written in 1971, along with his thoughts today.
To obtain a copy of Breeding Ourselves to Death, contact NPG at 202-667-8950 or npg@npg.org.
| The term “population control” was still generally taboo in the American press at the mid-point of the Twentieth Century. Demographers discussed the spectacular rise of population in their cloistered halls. But the public at large was blissfully unaware that mankind faced a problem. In the early nineteen fifties the Hugh Moore Fund, a non-profit educational foundation, distributed a pamphlet to the press and some 50,000 American leaders in the Who's Who calling attention to the flood of people engulfing the earth. The pamphlet, of which now more than a million and a half copies are in print, had—and is still having—an impact. This book sets forth what happened. It is published as a historical record and with the hope that methods and techniques employed by the Hugh Moore Fund may be of use to the growing army of devoted men and women—and organizations—now engaged in the struggle to control the greatest menace of our time. We must check the present unbridled population growth in order to stop the deterioration of our environment. |
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| In the more than three decades since I wrote the above, the world and its approach to the population problem have changed a great deal. On the positive side, birth rates have dropped dramatically in both rich and most poor nations. The drop among the rich has been especially welcome, since it has lessened their already-disastrous impact on Earth's life support systems. On the negative side, world population has soared through six billion, and the United States has clearly claimed the title of “most overpopulated nation.” With more than 285 million people and growing fast, it is now in third place in brute numbers, and with its high level of per capita consumption it is responsible for by far the greatest national share of global environmental destruction. And the sad thing is that population limitation (to say nothing of consumption control) has fallen off the government and public radar scopes in the United States. I hope that this book will help to elevate it again. —Paul Ehrlich |
U.S. population increased by 3.4 million people in the last year, according to the first new population estimates since Census 2000.
This 1.2 percent increase brings the official population total for July 1, 2001 to 284.8 million. However, since more than seven months have gone by since then, the current population is likely to be about 286 million.
Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado had the fastest percentage growth rates during the one-year period. Nevada’s population jumped by a staggering 5.4 percent in twelve months.
California, the most populous state, saw the greatest numerical increase, adding 629,500 residents to reach 34.5 million. That increase accounted for one-fifth of the nation’s total population growth during the year. The Census Bureau attributed California’s increase primarily to immigration and births, not people moving in from other states; in fact, 88,000 more people moved out of California than moved in from other states during the period. International migration to California was about 344,000–a full quarter of all immigration to the U.S. during those twelve months.
The U.S. grew by 32 million–the size of Canada–during the 1990s. Demographer Leon Bouvier projects that the country will add another 54.8 million residents by 2020.
In December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3525, which would tighten immigration laws. The legislation would require a computerized system to track visa entries and exits, mandate tamper-resistant and machine-readable biometric visa documents, and strengthen the foreign student tracking system.
The bill now heads to the Senate. As this newsletter goes to press, the Senate is expected to pass the legislation quickly. While far more needs to be done to rein in the U.S.’s out-of-control immigration system–particularly decreasing overall legal numbers–NPG supports this bill as an important first step.
Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has resumed immigration talks with Mexico, seeking either a guest worker program or a possible amnesty for the millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
“Polls taken in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks indicate that the vast majority of Americans remain firmly opposed to loosening immigration laws,” says NPG executive director Sharon McCloe Stein. “In fact, the public says that they want just the opposite of what the Administration is pursuing: stronger immigration laws, not weaker ones.”
A movement to broaden insurance coverage for contraception has made substantial progress in federal courts and state legislatures recently. Seventeen states have laws or regulations requiring insurance companies to cover contraception if they cover prescription drugs, up from just one state three years ago.
In June, a federal judge ruled that health insurance plans provided by a Seattle-based company must cover contraceptives if they cover other prescription drugs. The ruling applies only to the company sued, but sets a precedent for future cases.
Although 97 percent of traditional health plans cover prescription drugs, half do not cover any reversible contraception.
States that require insurance coverage of contraceptives are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Washington.
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“Myths of Smart Growth” This colorful hand-out clearly shows the limits of “smart growth” plans and demonstrates that sprawl can’t be stopped if population growth continues. "Tighten Up the Borders” This NPG Footnote is a reprint of Congressman Lamar Smith’s op-ed recommending strengthening immigration enforcement. "Why We Need a Smaller U.S. Population and How We Can Achieve It” We’ve updated and reprinted this NPG classic, in which president Donald Mann outlines NPG’s recommendations for achieving a truly sustainable U.S. population size. New state population reports are also available. |
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NPG’s Earth Day pack will help you bring the population message to your local community’s Earth Day events. Our fliers, stickers, and action ideas make it easy for you to spread the word that we can’t reach any of our environmental goals if we don’t strike at the root and stop population growth. Earth Day is April 22, so contact NPG now for our Earth Day materials: 202-667-8950 or npg@npg.org. |
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 Spread NPG’s message everywhere you go, with our new tote bags–now available in limited quantity to NPG members who have renewed their membership at the $30 level or higher. These bright, eye-catching 14” x 13" x 3" tote bags are specially designed to commemorate NPG’s 30th anniversary.If you haven’t yet renewed your membership, please send in your $30 today and claim your totebag. |
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We worked with reporters at The Washington Post, Federal Computer Week, Sierra, and EcoConnections and have recently been quoted in the Arkansas Morning News, Deseret News, Florida Specifier, Sumter County Times, and the magazine Culture Change. Our staff appeared on radio shows throughout Florida, including WGGU--Ft. Myers, WQYK--Tampa, and WFTW in the Florida Panhandle, as well as WNWS in Jackson, Tenn., and KRLA in Los Angeles. Our outreach to environmental organizations is paying off: NPG joined with Coast Alliance, a national nonprofit working to protect American coastlines, to raise public awareness of overpopulation’s effect on our coasts. |
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“The supply of cheap, wide-open land that has become the shiny new Broward will be exhausted in three to seven years. And new challenges have marched in along with the new neighbors. Traffic creeps bumper to bumper on Interstate 595 east and Interstate 75 south at rush hour. Many new schools overflow with students; some are so crowded that children cram into cafeterias for lunch as early as 9:50 a.m. And even though southwest Broward is nearing ‘build-out,’ the point at which there are few if any large chunks of open land left for development, some demographers project that an additional one million people could call the county home by 2030 ... Where does a hemmed-in place with boundaries fixed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades, already the nation's 15th largest county with 1.6 million residents, put one million more people? How does it remain faithful to those lured to its western suburbs by the promise of safety, space and solid schools?” – Miami Herald |