Population Facts

Global Population Concerns

• The first billion took from the dawn of humanity until 1830.
• The second billion took only 100 years -- from 1830 to 1930.
• Three billion more arrived in the next 60 years.
• The next billion will take only 13 years (yes, just 13 years!) -- unless there is a tremendous effort to slow world birthrates!
• The ideal population of the United States was what it was around 1950, when doors were left unlocked and factors like housing, jobs, pace of life, crime, pollution, etc. were at comfortable levels.
• Some say there is a connection between runaway population growth and human suffering.
• It has been said that while recent environmental victories are very important, they will become meaningless if demand on the earth's resources continues to escalate as it has in the last century.
• The Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Global Warming calls population growth the driving force in global warming.
• Birth control and family planning are not available to all men and women.
• Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, recently said that, "We need to strengthen our resolve for greater economic and social justice, gender equality and global protection.... The issues are not different problems, they are part of the same synoptic worldview.  Whether we approach it from one direction or another -- the answers and approaches are linked."
• Bill McKibben, a renowned environmental author, recently concluded in The Atlantic Monthly that, "The next fifty years are a special time.  They will decide how strong and healthy the planet will be for centuries to come.  Between now and 2050 we'll see the zenith, or very nearly, of human population.  With luck we'll never see any greater production of carbon dioxide or toxic chemicals.  We'll never see more species extinction or soil erosion.  We need in these fifty years to be working on all parts of the equation -- on our ways of life, on our technologies, and on our population."
• It is evident the environment is being severely damaged by the impact of rapidly growing populations and over-exploitation of the earth's natrual resources.
• There is a direct population connection between human activities, global warming and the greenhouse effect.
• Almost all of the world's people now have access to modern family planning services, but they need to be educated and motivated to use them to have smaller families and to gain greater independence and self-determination.
• The population growth in Mexico dropped 34% in 10 years, boosting the nation's economic, social and environmental well-being.  Soap operas were the prime influence.

Population Concerns in the United States

POPULATION

• At the present growth rate of 1.1% per year, the United States' population will double to about 560 million in about the next 60 years, if current immigration and related trends continue.  Each year over 3 million people are added to the U.S. population.
• Over 70% of the United States' annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida and New York) results from immigration.
• Every person leaves an "ecological footprint" on the Earth -- that amount of land which, assuming it is endowed with an average amount of resources, is necessary to sustain one human being indefinitely.  The average American's ecological footprint is about 25 acres, an area far greater than that taken up by one's residence and place of school or work and other places where he or she is.  Those 25 additional acres supply the average American with food, fiber, and other resources, as well as capacity for waste assimilation and disposal. (The average footprint of everyone in the world is about 7 acres.)  For further information on the American ecological footprint, continue to the following links.

LAND & FOOD PRODUCTION

• One acre of natural habitat or farmland is converted to built-up space or highway for each person added to the U.S. population.
• More than 99.3% of the U.S. food comes from land, while less than .5% comes from aquatic systems.
• Of the nearly 470 million acres of arable land that are now in cultivation in the U.S., more than 1 million acres are lost from cultivation each year due to urbanization, multiplying transportation networks, and industrial expansion.  In addition, about 2 million acres of prime cropland are lost annually by erosion, salinization, and water logging.
• Iowa has lost 1/2 of its fertile topsoil after farming there for about 100 years.  Their topsoil is being lost about 30 times faster than sustainability.
• if present population gwoth and other trends continue, over the next 60 years, both degradation adn urbanization will diminish our arable land base of 470 million acres by 120 million acres.
• Only 0.6 acres of arable land per person will be available in 2050, whereas more tha 1.2 acres per person are needed to provide a divers diet (currently 1.6 acres of arable land are available),
• A doubling of the American population will accelerate the need for food.  For every 1% increase in food demand, the price at the farm gate increases 4.5%.

FOOD EXPORTS & OIL IMPORTS

• Currently the U.S. earns $40 billion per year as the largest food exporter in the world.  About 60% of the oil used in the U.S. is imported at a cost of $75 billion per year.  About 400 gallons of oil equivalents are expended to feed each American, about 17% of all energy used, each year.
• If present trends in population growth, domestic food consumption, and topsoil loss continue, the U.S. food wxports (and the income from them) will cease by 2030.

ENERGY

• Fossil energy use in the U.S. has increased from 20 to as much as 1,000-fold in just four decades.
• Currently, 92% of U.S. energy needs are provided byt finite fossil fuels, with 6% of the total energy used for agricultrual production.
• Renewable energy sources, like hydropower and biomass, provide 8% of the U.S. energy and are increasing very slowly.
• Approaching 2050, most of the oil and natural gas in the United States will be exhausted, and world supplies will be ever closer to depletion.
• A renewable energy source, solar energy, would require the use of about 20% of the U.S. land area (about 450 million acres) to support a system that would supply only 1/2 of all current energy consumption, and the U.S. oil and gas reserves will have nearly run out by 2050, leaving us with environmentally problematic coal, or nuclear energy.  The advantage of the land space required for solar is that the solar can be above the ground, allowing for multiple use of the land space, such as grazing, agriculture, and warehousing.

WATER

• Water is essential for all life, including productive agriculture.  Agriculture consumes about 85% of all fresh water consumed by Americans.  In the West, water shortages are increasing.
• Rainfall is used directly by crops, is stored in diverse water bodies and in underground aquifers.  Groundwater provides 31% of the water used in U.S. agriculture.  Groundwater is being depleted 25% in excess of recharge rates.
• Even if water management were to be substantially improved, by 2060 the 560 million Americans will have only 700 gallons/day/capita, considered a minimum for all human needs.  This assumes even distribution, which is not the case -- much of our population and agricultural production is in arid and semi-arid regions.
• Almost every house that can afford one now owns some type of water filter.  Water quality is decreasing, as are our sources of potable water, due to development, salinity, and polution.

 
THE ECONOMY

• In America's Forgotten Majority, Ray Teixeria and Joel Rogers write that "from 1973 to 1988, an economy that almost doubled in real terms, the wage of the typical worker in production and nonsupervisory jobs (80 percent of the workforce) actually declined by 6 percent, from $13.61 to $12.77 an hour."