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Jun. 5, 2007 What absolutely limits America's population is the finite supply of fresh water. (According to wikipedia, the definition of "fresh water" is that it has very little salt or pollution in it.) Americans have already passed the sustainable level of usage, and water shortages have begun to hit us pretty hard. It's going to get a lot worse in the near future. Immigration is an important factor. Some political leaders say we need immigration, because people born in the U.S. are dying faster than they are having children. Therefore, we supposedly need more youthful people (mainly immigrants) to pay for our pensions and health benefits, serve in our armed forces, work on farms, etc. Educated populations in Europe and Japan are facing similar problems, and they are using that as an excuse to allow immigration. Europe is letting fast-procreating Muslim groups in, and we are letting Hispanics in. (Even some large areas of China are experiencing these phenomena.) The trouble is that we can't continue to increase our population any further. In fact, we have to start decreasing it, whether we like it or not, because we are running out of fresh water. Global warming (if it continues) will make things worse, but hard limits exist, even without that. Our most productive food growing areas, in the southwest and midwest, are dependent on irrigation. However, California has already passed its legal limit on using the Colorado river for that, and it is being fought in the courts. The huge Ogallala Aquifer (left over from the ice age) that supplies our midwest with irrigation water is beginning to dry up or get saline, because of excessive usage. The scary conditions of the old "dust bowl" are beginning to come back. Other aquifers are also drying up. It's rare that you hear anything about this in the news, but it ought to be getting lots of attention, in connection with immigration debates. The only solution, as far as I can see it, requires lowering our standard of living. (Of course, this is a very undesirable suggestion, which politicians don't want to even think about!) We are going to have to pay more, to get our American-born young people to do the type of work that immigrants do now, so we will have less money for our own luxuries. Our senior citizens will need more support from middle age workers, who will have less money for themselves. (Again, very undesirable, but it's going to hit us, one way or another, so we might as well deal with it.) Without "growth" in business, our whole economic system will have to readjust --- essentially downward. And some of us will have to work harder. Our science students will have to study more, if we can't continue to skim off the cream of the crop from India and China. If we try to stick with immigration as the solution, there are other problems, like overloading our hospital emergency rooms. Also, unlike the immigrant waves in the twentieth century, the recent immigrants are not learning the main national language here or in Europe, and there is danger of increased violence when assimilation is not happening. However, those problems could, theoretically at least, be solved. The limits of fresh water supplies can not be solved. A hard limit on population growth is the only solution, and we'd better face it. ------------ About the author: Dan Shanefield is a retired engineering professor, who worked at Bell Labs and then at Rutgers University. He wrote the book Industrial Electronics for Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians. Visit his website here. Email: shanefield@ieee.org Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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