If you type in “population growth problems” in Google you come up with 26,500,000 hits.

Wow!

It’s quite obvious that the world is talking more about this issue with each passing day and NPG is honored to rank among the top organizations working to solve these problems here in the United States. No individual issue will so radically change our nation in the coming decades as our population growth.

In recent years, rampant immigration, both legal and illegal, has helped to fuel much discussion about America’s population problems. It is an issue that still must be realistically confronted and responsibly resolved.

But lately, there is another “i” word that is starting to pop up more and more in the news – that word is infrastructure.

President-elect Obama is already talking about a major economic recovery plan amounting to roughly $850 billion dollars, including programs that will cost as much as $100 billion dollars and employ as many as 3 million people to rebuild critical parts of our infrastructure. This effort will be directed toward road construction, renovating schools, updating and expanding our nation’s energy grid, port expansion…the list goes on. Many of these projects are long overdue. However, as a nation we will soon find out that this is an endless task where any progress will simply be a drop in the bucket as long over 30 million more people continue to be added to our population each decade.

In a recent commentary titled “Rebuilding the Economy by Rebuilding America,” Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, noted:

“By mid-century, the U.S. population will have grown from approximately 300 million to roughly 420 million. This is the equivalent of 11 new Los Angeles metropolitan areas. The number of airline passengers will explode to one billion (annually) by 2015. The number of highway vehicle miles traveled will increase 60% by 2030. Water networks, ports, the electricity grid, and other vital infrastructure systems that we don’t even think about are becoming obsolete by the day. Our infrastructure is simply not up to meeting the needs of a dynamic and growing nation.”

Of course, Mr. Donohue and I look at this problem quite differently.
He is of the “growth at any cost” mind-set that has brought our nation to this critical point. He sees our deteriorating infrastructure and massive population growth as a ticket to more jobs, money, etc. What he doesn’t see is that in following this path our country’s social, economic and environmental problems are going to soon spin out of control.

I see the new emphasis on infrastructure as a new platform for debate on population issues. Finally, after decades of NPG ounding the alarm that America’s population is growing too fast to keep up with our nation’s infrastructure, the message is getting through. And hopefully, once our nation’s leaders come to the realization that there is simply not enough time or money to build our way out of our infrastructure problems they will grasp the reality that we must take crucial steps to get control of our skyrocketing population growth.

Through the years I have consistently found that whenever you get individuals focused on the stark realities of an ever-ballooning population, they come around to our way of thinking very quickly. After all, the numbers alone make our argument that we must act now to slow, halt and eventually reverse today’s population growth. Who in America can realistically say that our nation is ready – or will ever be ready – to absorb another 140 million people in just 42 years?

As 2008 wraps up, I look forward to NPG celebrating our 37th year in 2009. The population challenges we have confronted through almost four decades have been enormous. We are still far from our goals. And while we still confront mind-boggling population numbers, we can look to a proud history of bringing this important issue to the forefront of our national consciousness. NPG continues to champion new ideas, foster new debate, conduct new research and create new activities that enable countless millions of people to learn more and more about the disastrous price our world and nation will pay if we fail to more forcefully and realistically address this critical issue. Together we must create a positive future with a rich quality of life for our children and grandchildren.

NPG has put forth a bold agenda for 2009. We very much need your help to fulfill it. If you have yet to renew your membership please do so soon.

MOST STRESSFUL CITIES

A short time ago, Forbes.com posted a listing of America’s “most stressful cities” on their website and it is interesting to note how problems directly related to population can cause so much stress on individuals. NPG has always made it quite clear that population growth and a declining quality of life go hand-in-hand. Factors such as housing density, traffic gridlock, air pollution, affordable housing, unemployment, etc. impact our lives in ways that often go unnoticed but take their toll in other ways. According to Forbes, some cities made the list due to unique characteristics. In addition to other problems, Cleveland, OH, was noted to have the “4th fewest sunny days of the year of cities measured.” Salt Lake City, which amazingly has a high-density problem being in such an open area as the West, made it on the “most stressful” list even though Forbes noted that it ranks as the “best place to be unemployed.” San Francisco made it to the list simply by being the core city where “7.2 million people are packed into the Bay area.”

While many of the nation’s top cities made the list (including 3 in California) no Southern cities were included.

The countdown according to Forbes was:
10. Philadelphia, PA
9. Providence, RI
8. Salt Lake City, UT
7. Cleveland, OH
6. San Diego, CA
5. San Francisco, CA
4. Los Angeles, CA
3. Detroit, MI
2. New York, NY
1. Chicago, IL


POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

BIGGEST FINE FOR ILLEGAL HIRING

IFCO Systems North America has been ordered to pay a fine of $20.7 million for employing as many as 6,000 illegal immigrants from 2003 to 2006. It is the largest civil settlement in the US against one company when it comes to work-site enforcement. More than 1,100 illegal immigrants were caught in April 2006 raids at 40 IFCO pallet service plants in 26 states. As of now, nine IFCO employees have pled guilty to criminal charges in the case and four are awaiting trial on felony indictments.

NPG applauds the Bush Administration’s actions in clamping down on illegal hiring. However, when you realize that this company so willingly abused the law we have to question whether the fine was steep enough. The Obama Administration faces a real test in greatly expanding illegal immigration enforcement or letting it lapse. Because of today’s economic crisis, it should be very difficult to back away from cracking down on employers who hire illegals rather than legal Americans.

TOP ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER REPORTS ON STATUS OF CHESAPEAKE BAY

After many years as a Baltimore Sun environmental reporter and columnist, Tom Horton knows what he’s talking about when he speaks of the Chesapeake Bay. So when he recently released a report titled “Going, Going, Gone…” funded by the Abell Foundation, it proved to be invaluable reading for all of us here at NPG who have invested so much in our Chesapeake Bay Program.

Horton argues that “The restoration of the Chesapeake Bay is a failure after 25 years and will remain so until political and environmental leaders stop embracing rapid, unending growth.” His conclusion parallels NPG’s argument that we can no longer accept the status quo and that swift, positive action is needed now to halt population growth in the area.

In his study he argues: “A fatal blind spot remains in the best strategies to save the Bay. The blind spot is our allegiance – some would say addiction – to perpetual economic growth, and to encouraging an ever-expanding population of human consumers to support it.”

Horton challenges the myth that growth is inevitable, or necessary, to achieve economic prosperity, and talks candidly about foreign immigration, the largest sources of population growth. “By an end to growth,” Horton writes, “we do not mean an end to capitalism, stock markets, innovation, or even greed and corruption, but rather a shift to economic development to better serve those already here versus making endless and expensive accommodations for all who might be induced to come.”

“Ending growth is a debate needing to happen,” he says. “Once we begin to shift the lens, to dare to consider alternatives to the current growth-is-good mentality, many ‘goods’ will become ‘bads.’ A stable population and a steady state economy will not guarantee environment or social Utopia” Horton argues, “but it will give us breathing room, leave us options we will not otherwise have.”

A full copy of “Going, Going, Gone…” can be found at www.abell.org, the website of the Abell Foundation which funded this study. NPG would like to thank Bill Ryerson, the president of the Population Media Center in Shelburne, VT for bringing this information to our attention.

NPG NOTES

CHESAPEAKE BAY STUDENT POSTERS

Our new full-color Chesapeake Bay educational posters are fresh from the press and we will start to distribute them to thousands of schools in the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the coming weeks. Please note that they are available (limit 2) to all NPG friends and supporters living in the states of DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, and WV. If you would like a copy for a local school, community center or library, simply call us at 703-370-9510 or contact us via www.npg.org.

4TH ANNUAL NPG STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP CONTEST TO BE LAUNCHED

NPG has issued an open invitation to all high school seniors and college freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to join in our 4th Annual Student Scholarship Contest. This year’s topic is not finalized yet, but it will focus around what the new administration should do to address the critical issue of population growth before it’s too late. Please watch our website for the specific topic and deadlines. Following the contest, we will work to ensure that the message of our upcoming generation is heard on Capitol Hill.

QUOTABLE

“Panic over a turbulent world economy has overshadowed strategic issues that, in the long run, will determine quality of life on Earth. Few people are willing to concentrate right now on such transcendent matters as unsustainable population growth, rapid global warming, dwindling water supplies and loss of biodiversity. Indeed, the very words seem inconsequential to the many Americans worrying about the sorry state of their 401(k) accounts.

Yet all of the world-view problems listed have something in common. They amount to slow-motion disaster in waiting. As we end one year and look ahead to 2009, policymakers need to think beyond the global financial meltdown. Otherwise, short-term fixes will delay addressing the larger problems on which humankind’s prosperity, even survival, depend.”

William B. Dickinson
The Reporter
Vacaville, CA

“That problem is the awakening of the world’s youth to the raw deal their parents and grandparents – my generation, in toto – are handing them, and the growing anger the young feel about the fetid stables of debt, scandal and corruption they are being left to clean.

I don’t know what to call the generation on the rise, but Generation Xcess would do just fine for the one now in charge of global affairs. We have taken the greatest financial, technological and political opportunities the world has ever offered and abused them for our own pleasures, greed and egos.”

Jim Hoagland
Washington Post columnist commenting on
the Bernie Madeoff scandal

Note: Mr. Hoagland’s insights are also relevant to today’s population issues.

 

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WHY THE NPG JOURNAL?

The NPG Journal (offered free to all recipients) exists 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.
We realize not all news stories covering population issues will reflect NPG policies and goals. One of our main purposes in creating the NPG Journal is to expose these items to a wider audience, and to draw attention to the fact that so many articles speak to immigration and population issues but often fail to address the central cause of many problems – TOO MANY PEOPLE.
Ultimately, NPG would like to see writers at all levels make the obvious (to us, at least) connection between environmental and resource problems and the growing number of people in both the United States and the world. Unfortunately, most do not. To that end, we comment as necessary to help our readers see those links in hopes they will continue to speak out on what we deem to be the most pressing issue of our time – population size and growth.
NPG President Donald Mann offers his personal insight and commentary on individual stories, especially those that challenge, confirm and/or complement our NPG Research and Forum Papers. The goal of the NPG Journal is to greatly expand NPG’s educational mission. NPG’s activities continue to emphasize the 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 to help resolve today’s immigration crisis and work to halt, and eventually reverse America’s out-of-control population growth.
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 of the NPG Journal on a monthly basis. Contact us at www.npg.org


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.