Overpopulation and the drought
Published on April 26th, 2015
Letter to the Editor
Jo Wideman
April 26, 2015
As seen in:
Santa Barbara News-Press
California historian Kevin Starr said it all: “Mother Nature didn’t intend for 40 million people to live here.”
It is irresponsible for California’s officials to ignore limitations on natural resources and to continue to encourage more population growth. As ecologist Garrett Hardin noted, “A drought is just as much a population longage as it is a water shortage.”
Whether the last few years of diminished precipitation marks some shift in climate patterns, and, if so, whether that shift is due to human causes, makes little difference. Extended periods of low rainfall, compared to anything experienced in recent centuries, are natural to California and the West. Research into tree rings indicates that California experienced megadroughts from A.D. 850 to 1090 and 1140 to 1320.
All of the state’s recent population growth stems from immigration. For the California Legislature to encourage more illegal immigration into the state —as it continually does by providing more benefits to illegal immigrants in an effort to blur the distinction between behavior that is legal and that is illegal —is reckless and a threat to precious natural resources.