Population Growth Questioned
Published on August 24th, 2012
Letter to the Editor (for publication)
The Contra Costa Times
February 1, 2012
It's amazing that with all the environmental, overcrowding (e.g., classrooms and traffic congestion) and limited-resource issues that we face, no one wants to talk about the number one factor, population growth. Unbridled population growth, with all the human-based negative impacts, is not "sustainable" long term.
For years the state has made a population forecast and provided large financial incentives (taxpayer moneys) to cities and counties to add a specified amount of new housing (including "affordable housing") to facilitate that growth. No one seems to be questioning the population forecast or discussing whether it's desirable, or what might be done to slow it.
The current One Bay Area program is trying to sell the public on the need to 'pack and stack' new housing around transportation hubs such as BART stations as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But that objective could be better served by slowing population growth. The word limit here precludes more details, but interested readers should check out Californians for Population Stabilization (www.CAPSweb.org).
Don Huggins
Walnut Creek, CA
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