🚀 go-pugleaf

In his January 5th State of the State address, Arnold Schwarzenegger
happily called for the building of more homes, roads and power plants,
and claimed that these things are compatible with preserving
California's environment. But he's gravely mistaken. Human population
growth has put nature under siege for centuries and the pressure keeps
rising despite the best technology. Arnold did admit that conservation
alone won't solve our resource shortages, but he made no mention of
WHY.

The "why" of the matter is the same reason we're in an endless race to
create more jobs, many of them menial. There are too many people and
too much redundant labor. Perpetual growth economies must constantly
strive to create jobs and raise output (GNP) but few people question
the ultimate purpose of it. For example, construction jobs created to
coddle growth are just one of the bigger pyramid schemes embedded in a
growth-addicted economy. This is not real wealth creation; it's
overpopulation feeding off itself.

Housing keeps getting more expensive because demand keeps rising and
there's less (aesthetically acceptable) land to build on each day.
Opening up more land for construction - the typical Republican mandate
- only impacts the environment more.

The legacy of Arnold's political party, exemplified by Takers like
Richard Pombo, clashes with Arnold's apparent interest in protecting
nature. Population growth aka economic growth must stop and stabilize
as soon as possible. It can't be "managed" at infinitely higher levels.
The cost of living is rising in no small part because resources are
getting physically scarcer and harder to procure. Various economic
theories attempt to mask this reality but it's simple mathematics.

California is projected to have 50 million people by 2025 and parts of
the state are already crowded slums in the eyes of many. With so many
people, it's harder and harder to get away from it all because
everyone's following you there! Even if we somehow manage to maintain a
"clean" environment with many more people, overcrowding will continue
to spoil aesthetic aspects of nature. Wilderness parks are looking more
and more like amusement parks or even urban settings.

Arnold is a gutsy politician who likes serious reforms, but he'll never
take a stand on the ultimate reform needed by the human race;
significantly more birth control (to balance lower death rates) and the
admission that Man must live within finite means. We can't keep
pretending a more crowded world is a better world.

E.A.

http://enough_already.tripod.com/
If any other species behaved like Man we'd call it a plague.