First post

I grew up in a tiny town in California. For most of my childhood, it had a population of around 1,000. At that time, there was one developed neighborhood of single-family dwellings; the rest of the houses dated from the town's heyday (1860s), with single houses here and there dating from subsequent eras. Most of the flat land surrounding the town ws either range for cattle, or nut orchards. The town was tucked within rolling hills, dotted here and there with the archetypal California Oaks. These hills were beautifully sculpted and immodestly tall for such rounded objects. This painting by Ray Strong gives you the idea:

Around the time I turned 12 or 13, the land developers began buying up all the unoccupied land around our town. They systematically filled it with poorly-made tract homes. No one in the community seemed to care. No one seemed to have any idea about planning to ensure that our town retained its character, that the road into town would be able to bear the traffic, that the community landfill would be able to absorb the garbage generated by these enormous new neighborhoods.

The tract homes filled not only the flat areas, but began creeping up the enormous, preternaturally soft hillsides. Some of the hills were bulldozed flat on top to accommodate homesites for a few penultimate tract mansions (owned by the developer/developer's sons.) Thus the surrounding area was changed, forever for the worse. There were no more orchards. There were no more flocks of sheep in the pastures, roosters stalking through town, or kids on old horses plodding through on their way to the creek. As of the 2000 census, the town had grown to over 10,000. I don't know what the 2008 numbers are...Here is what it ended up looking like:
This was my first experience of the effect of unchecked population growth on an environment.

Now, thirty-five years later, it's not just a case of views being ruined, roads being congested, and a new landfill needed. I'm alarmed at the fact that US population is still growing, rather than stabilizing at a sustainable level. This, because each US citizen uses such a great amount of energy and other resources, and takes this level of usage for granted (in fact, many take it as a God-given right!)that each added US citizen impacts the environment more seriously than a new person born elsewhere. From Wikipedia: "The US consumes 25% of the world's energy (with a share of global productivity at 22% and a share of the world population at 5%)."

In this blog, I'm going to write about my research and exploration of human population, especially US population, and its influence on the environment. There are many many interrelated issues, and I hope to look into as many corners as possible. I want to educate myself on this issue in hopes of gaining a big-picture view of the situation we're in. Wish me luck.

May this work benefit all sentient beings.