A false charge of 'racism' -
Population control is the paramount environmental issue
By Albert Allen Bartlett
February 8, 2004
Published in the Boulder Daily Camera
Let us examine two very different stories in the Sunday Camera of Jan. 18. These apparently unrelated stories are actually tied together at a very fundamental level. On the front page was a major story about household heating bills for natural gas increasing by 80 percent.
The reason given for the price increase is that demand for natural gas in the United States is growing faster than supplies. Here is some background. In spite of intense drilling of new wells, production from existing gas wells in the United States and Canada is declining faster than new gas can be brought on line. About 15 percent of our natural gas comes from Canada. Now, in a desperate last-ditch attempt to slow the decline in U.S. gas production, a concentrated program of drilling for gas is destroying ranch and wilderness areas in the West. As a current resource paper reports, "All North American gas production at present is in decline." As a consequence, big efforts are being made to increase imports of liquefied natural gas from Indonesia and other Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
Two factors account for the growth in demand for natural gas; growth in per-capita consumption of gas and growth of U.S. population. The growth in the per-capita consumption of gas is due, in part, to the increasing use of natural gas to meet the growing demand for electricity. The growing demand for electricity is driven, in part, by our growing population. So, in two ways, population growth in the United States is the major factor that is causing the rapid rise of the price of natural gas.
The second story in Sunday's Camera carried the headline, "Racism at issue in Sierra Club." Here's a quick summary of the background of this story: The Sierra Club has a wonderful record of fighting to save the environment. At one time, the club recognized that population growth is the major threat to the environment. However, around 1996 a new crew at the club changed the policies and put the club in the indefensible position of believing that the environment could be saved even though U.S. population continues to grow.
To make this sound plausible, the club made a big national effort to promote "smart growth," suggesting that population growth is OK if it is smart growth. It is pretty obvious that smart growth and dumb growth both destroy the environment. (The difference is that smart growth destroys the environment with good taste.) In order to return the club to a rational population policy, some members of the club formed a group, Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization (www.susps.org) whose goal is to get the club to acknowledge that stopping population growth in America is a necessary (although not a sufficient) condition for saving the environment.
The group made a couple of attempts by petition to amend the club's policies to restore their original common sense, but these attempts were defeated in campaigns that I have heard characterized as being full of "dirty tricks." Now SUSPS has used petitions to nominate, for election to the club's board of directors, people who understand the fact that population growth is a major factor in the destruction of the environment. It is this effort to restore rationality to the club that has elicited the cries of "racism" from those in the club who cling to the belief that we can have population growth and save the environment. The term "racism" is a word that is sometimes used when one can find no logical argument to defend one's position.
Population growth in the U.S. is a leading factor that is causing rising prices, increasing congestion in our cities, rapidly escalating taxes and declining quality of our natural environment. How is this problem being addressed at the national, state and local levels? What we see is sad. At every level, we see elected officials working diligently to promote population growth. Sometimes they try to cover themselves by saying that all will be well if we use smart growth to accommodate the population increases. We all know further population growth will make everything worse.
I know the three candidates for election to the board of the Sierra Club whose names are listed in the Sierra Club story. I know these three to be intelligent, rational people who are devoted to protecting the environment in the United States and globally. Each is deeply concerned about human rights and the human condition. They understand the obvious, and much more.
So, whether you are worried about your ability to pay your escalating natural gas bill or about saving the environment, remember that both are threatened by continued U.S. population growth, a problem that is ignored or denied by our political leaders and by our premier environmental groups.
Albert Allen Bartlett is a University of Colorado professor emeritus and an expert on population growth.
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