FEATURED STORIES

The Environmental Load of 300 Million
A Nation of 300 Million: Behind the Numbers
Sounding the Alarm on 300 Million People
A Growing Population – Few Doctors


COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann

HITTING AN HISTORIC POPULATION MILESTONE

In the coming weeks we are going to see many stories in the media about the U.S. hitting the 300 million population mark. We have found the three articles that we feature this week to be well-written and well-balanced in telling the true story of what's in store for our nation as a whole – and in parts. The fact is that while a booming population is a very serious threat to our environment and quality of life, population growth affects each geographic area of our great nation very differently. Some older cities are actually losing population while others can't cope with the swarms of new people. Our environment is being excessively overstressed in many areas due to too many people and a lack of poor planning, while other areas are reaping the rewards of environmental stewardship.

For us here at NPG, it's heartening to note that in each news article we cite, the reporters find a growing concern among people all across our country that we are growing too fast and it's finally time to heed the alarm bells. That reaffirms how successful NPG has been with our nationwide educational campaign about the dire consequences of population growth.

I shudder to think what our nation would look like today had tens of millions of Americans not answered the first Earth Day's call in 1970 to save our environment. The collective progress we've made in 36 years is due to the work of many full-time activists – let's keep fighting! To get a quick overview of a nation of 300 million people, click on the stories above.


WHERE'S A DOCTOR WHEN YOU NEED ONE?

It's been a story that has gone on for decades as early settlers pushed farther and farther West and it took some time for life's other trappings – including medical care – to catch up. Yet, one would expect that in the 21st century such tales were a thing of the past. That's not true in Gillette,WY which has about 21,000 people. The town saw its population explode by 25% between 1990 and 2000 -- and it continues to grow much faster than locals can keep pace. The question is: How many doctors will we have in future years to treat the tens of millions of additional people that will crowd even our nation's small cities and towns? Click on the story above.


IMMIGRATION: ONE SMALL VICTORY - AN EVER BIGGER BATTLE

Every American who is concerned with our skyrocketing population and especially the waves of illegal immigrants flooding across our borders was heartened last week when Congress finally passed – and President Bush signed into law – the Secure Fence Act which provides $1.2 billion to build at least 700 miles of fencing in some of the most vulnerable areas of our southern border. It remains to be seen how quickly the Department of Homeland Security – better known for bureaucratic bungling than for rapid responses – starts building this long-overdue protective barrier.

Unfortunately, the singular victory of a border fence is only a small step in the giant battle to get illegal population under control.

The big question now is whether Congress is going to try to tackle the immigration problem in a lame duck session. No one is ready to give a definite answer. NPG members and all those concerned with making sure we do not end up with a "quick fix" immigration reform bill that would set dangerous and destructive immigration policies for the coming decades must be ready to engage in this battle once again if it comes up post-election. As shocking as it is that Congress' ineptitude and internal wrangling on this issue continues to permit more than a thousand illegals to cross our border every day, it would be much safer for this issue to be decided by a new Congress where the members have answered to the voters on the immigration issue.


POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

Immigration has been one of the hottest topics of 2006 and in many areas across the country it is exciting a passion among voters that has long been missing in mid-term elections. However, one party seems to be missing from the battle. According to an article on immigration in the National Journal last month: "On July 27, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., listed six issues that their party would address immediately if it took control. Noticeably missing was immigration."

Kudos to Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a member of the Houston City Council who is also running for Congress in Texas. Following the recent funeral of a policeman, Rodney Johnson who was killed by an illegal immigrant, Ms. Sekula-Gibbs said the death of Officer Johnson should prompt the Council to reevaluate the city's "sanctuary" policy. Rather than address this issue several council members walked out of the meeting. Ms. Sekula-Gibbs stood her ground and she should be commended.


QUOTABLE:

"After all, the root cause of our country's illegal immigration challenge is not the willingness of non-citizens to break our immigration laws – it is the willingness of U.S. citizens who own businesses to break the laws because of the unwillingness of the U.S. government to enforce them."

Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives


NPG NEWS:

We are pleased to announce that NPG's "Wake Up America!" campaign continues on schedule as we ran our member-sponsored ad in The Hill newspaper on September 27th, to ensure that our message about the dire need for a National Population Policy reached Members of Congress who will be in their individual states campaigning when the nation's population clock ticks past 300 million. The ad contained the names of 700 NPG members who understand the importance of putting their name behind our message.

In addition, NPG has mailed more than 5,400 25" x 36" full-color, fact-filled educational posters to middle and high schools nationwide. They should arrive just in time for the teachers to use them for a timely discussion about population and the environment mid-month when the news media is filled with stories concerning our country growing beyond 300 million. If any generation should be concerned about overpopulation and protecting America for what's ahead, it should be today's youngest generation.


WHY THE NPG JOURNAL?

With our country set to pass the milestone of 300 Million people, the coming months will find much of America's attention focused on our growing population. Here at NPG we are taking this historic opportunity – combined with the advent of our 35th Anniversary in 2007 -- to go beyond our traditional web postings and launch this new Internet-based educational publication which will be delivered every two weeks via e-mail to you and an ever-growing list of NPG members, media contacts, educators, friends and supporters.

Our purpose in launching the NPG Journal (offered free to all recipients) is to give more widespread distribution to timely news stories and articles related to population, immigration, environmental and political issues that currently affect our daily life -- or have the potential to seriously impact our future. Combined with this information, NPG President Donald Mann will offer his personal insight and commentary on individual stories, especially those that challenge, confirm and/or complement our NPG Forum Papers. In all, the NPG Journal will greatly expand NPG's educational mission, reinforce the vital need for Americans to speak up on population issues, and keep our nation -- especially our elected leaders on the national, state and local level – focused on taking action that can rein-in today's out-of-control population and immigration crises.

We welcome your feedback to articles posted on the NPG Journal and urge you to forward us the e-mail address of friends you think would like to receive a complimentary copy on a bi-weekly basis. Contact us at npg@npg.org. Also, please use that address to tell us if you do not wish to continue to receive this publication. Thank you.


ABOUT NPG:

Negative Population Growth, Inc. (NPG) is a national nonprofit membership organization with over 30,000 members nationwide. It was founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the devastating effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources, and standard of living. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.