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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:31 am
Reuters reports:
Some time this month, the number of Americans will surpass 300 million, a milestone that raises environmental impact questions for the only major industrial nation whose population is increasing substantially.
- If only they would live in caves…Posted by anthony_r on 2006 10 03 at 09:46 PM • permalink
- Exactly, Smithovitch.
Fuck you, Reuters.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 03 at 09:47 PM • permalink
- Cid – can you imagine the dinner table conversation when a Gore daughter took a boyfriend home to mmet Mom and Dad?Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 10 03 at 10:08 PM • permalink
- #2 S’vitch, #3 Jeffs, betcha AP’s pissed they didn’t think of it first. #7 Cid … of course … Banging’s hot. Raises global temps. Bad.Posted by crittenden on 2006 10 03 at 10:15 PM • permalink
- or even to meet Mom and Dad…Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 10 03 at 10:15 PM • permalink
- Whoops, events outpaced me there!Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 10 03 at 10:16 PM • permalink
- #4 rebase…that’s what they mean by “immigration.” It used to mean applying for papers and standing in line and having an education and getting your shots and your criminal background check. Now it means crawling under a fence in your underwear.Posted by crittenden on 2006 10 03 at 10:18 PM • permalink
- My dad, my mom and my brothers immigrated to this country, but I don’t want to admit that anymore. People might think they crawled under a fence in their underwear.Posted by crittenden on 2006 10 03 at 10:20 PM • permalink
- crittenden
Same for my wonderful, not to have killed me as a young child, parents.
My Dad, a gentle yet tough (believe you know what I mean) Sicilian, wept before my wonderful Mother did, upon seeing Ms. Liberty.
Dad said, the most beautiful Lady, he had ever seen…well next to Mom, that is.
I still hear those wonderful broken English words.
- The Rio Grande must be the toughest swim in the world. Every year millions of illegals cross it in order to get to the workers paradise of Canada, but are so tired after, they are forced to spend the rest of their miserable lives in Bush’s Imperial America working as Republican Party yard staff.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 10 03 at 10:35 PM • permalink
- Environmental impact questions? Like: why is America getting cleaner as it grows more prosperous? Why are there more trees now than when the population was 30 million? Why is the average life span here among the highest in the world and increasing? Why if oil is at “peak production” with no alternative in sight can we afford to not drill our own?
Those type of enviromental impact questions?
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 10 03 at 10:51 PM • permalink
Well, we’re just gonna have to tell Karl Rove we need a little lebensraum.
He’s way ahead of you. Why do you think he orchestrated 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan? That friggin’ pipeline? Hah.
Hint: whose armed forces are currently in Afghanistan, leaving their hockey rinks and Tim Horton’s totallyundefended?
Genius. Bow before Lord Rove, puny hosers!
- Vanguard, you might be interested to know that once GDP per capita hits US$8,000-$10,000, increased growth has a positive correlation to better air and water quality (US GDP per cap is about $37,000.) Air quality has been consistently improving in the US since the mid-1970s (possibly with the exception of California) and in China since the 1980s.
- 300 million people may sound like a lot but the USA comes in at 172nd place in the world for population density.
Talk to us about environmental impact questions when we crack the top 50 of that list.
Posted by David Crawford on 2006 10 03 at 11:20 PM • permalink
- Good stuff Ian. The time, resources and inclination to make things cleaner is only a product of increasing prosperity. Otherwise, we would be just too pre-occupied with surviving. Its why all the socialist “experiments” in the world are environmental basket cases.Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 10 03 at 11:25 PM • permalink
- The alleged negative environmental impact (“we’re all gonna die tomorrow, aaargh!”) of a growing population is in contrast to the positive demographic impact.
While Europe gets greener (enviro and Islamo), the US remains red, white and blue.
Go, you virile thing!
Posted by manbag’s bagman on 2006 10 03 at 11:34 PM • permalink
- Re #13, LOL, Jules! Yeah, I’ll bet that AP is really mad! Heh heh heh!
Thanks for the better perspective Ian and David. Leave it to Al Reuters to piss on 300 million Americans, and ignore the good news.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 03 at 11:35 PM • permalink
…the only major industrial nation whose population is increasing substantially.
I.e. the only one with a future.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 10 04 at 12:40 AM • permalink
- Dave S., I was scratching my head, trying to remember, now I remember what it was we forgot. October 1, annex Canada. Need a good week before the snow starts to occupy the place. Gotta start writing these things down. No big deal. The cultural imperialism thing is working out fine.
Vanguard, why just today I was enjoying my greatly extended life expectancy while driving from my average American home that would be a palace in Pakistan, in an average eastern suburb rampant with old oaks and maples, wild turkeys, bunnies, deer and coyotes, and an excess of seals annoying the fishermen a mile away in the Atlantic. Passing a worksite, I saw Brazilians currently unhindered by documentation toiling for their piece of whatever they can grab of this marvelous place, and who could blame them. I breathed deep the pristine air as I headed up the highway, sharing it with an embarrassment of wheeled wealth, secure I would make it to my workplace without being waylaid and blown to bits. But those rare bits of litter I did see mocked me with the knowledge that there are 300 million of us raising environmental impact questions now. Think about it, the sheer impact of 300 million environmental questions.
Posted by crittenden on 2006 10 04 at 12:40 AM • permalink
- Other fun facts you might like to know:
-Global forest acreage increased from 40.24mn to 43.04 square kilometres between 1950 and 1994
-Only 1000 species are known to have become extinct in the last 400 years (95% of which are insects, bacteria and virii)
-There’s a positive link between free trading nations and air polluion (which means globalisation in fact improves the environment!)
- Really, the U.S. should be adjusting its immigration laws to maximize its advantage.
Say, declare native-born citizens of any developed democracy (Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Canada, EU/EFTA members) between the ages of 18 and 40 eligible for U.S. permanent residency, on the sole conditions that they deposit, oh, $2,000 in a return-ticket deposit with the U.S. government, and pass a basic background check.
They would be ineligible for social welfare support, but could at any time give up residency and go home (the return deposits being used by the U.S. government to finance the tickets home). Or upon becoming citizens, they’d be handed back the deposit plus savings bond-equivalent interest.
The result would presumably be a persistent drain of realtively-easily-assimilated, educated, ambitious, risk-taking youth from high-unemployment places like Germany and France, to the United States. Where they would become economically productive, taxpaying members of society (the non-productives going home because they’re ineligible for social welfare checks). Win-win for both the country and the immigrants, at the expense perhaps of the duller and less ambitious segments of American youth.
Posted by Warmongering Lunatic on 2006 10 04 at 01:05 AM • permalink
- He may be a warmongering lunatic, but he’s a frikking geniusPosted by crittenden on 2006 10 04 at 01:08 AM • permalink
- Only problem is, the EU would stop issuing passports. Too embarrassing.Posted by crittenden on 2006 10 04 at 01:18 AM • permalink
- #39 Why go through all that rigmarole when they can just cross your porous borders for free?
Anyway, most Euro’s would prefer to burkha up before admitting defeat and becoming a productive member of the world.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 10 04 at 01:25 AM • permalink
- Lunatic: What a plan! I’d be in on that. It’s real hard for Aussies to work in the US, and we can only dream of the high pay and low tax for experienced tech/engineering workers etc.
There may be another benefit: I reckon so many would piss off from high taxing countries that those governments, faced with a diminishing skilled workforce, would have to become globally competitive in attracting talent.
300 million people may sound like a lot but the USA comes in at 172nd place in the world for population density.
Anyone who’s driven around the country—even just PARTS of the country—would know that for sure. East of the Mississippi it’s not easy to get out of sight of all human development, but you can do it. West of the Mississippi it’s even easier.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 10 04 at 07:31 AM • permalink
October 1, annex Canada. Need a good week before the snow starts to occupy the place.
Jules, you’re forgetting the brutal Canadian winter. It starts in August every year. Besides, if we just build a fence and accidentally place it 100 miles north of the current border and declare it the new border, the remaining 5000 people (and they are the only ones who still have guns) in Canada can keep it.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2006 10 04 at 08:57 AM • permalink
- #49 Yes there are a few quiet ZPGers left.
World population has tripled in my lifetime, and the map of population explosion is congruent with the map of “trouble spots”.
Could there be a connexion? Let me think….Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2006 10 04 at 09:03 AM • permalink
- Listen, you guys are going to need local knowledge and an ability to treat with the natives (and the Natives), so may I offer (and have accepted!) my services to be Karl Rove’s puppet-head ruler. I kind of like the title Governor-Generalissimo (For-Life-Eh). And as an aside, for Some0Seppo’s edification, there are two seasons in Canada: winter and August. Don’t you forget it, buddy.Posted by andycanuck on 2006 10 04 at 10:34 AM • permalink
- #56 Jim, especially if you saw what their septic and other environmental arrangements are like. (reference earlier post comment re “Shitters of Kosovo” coffee table book)Posted by crittenden on 2006 10 04 at 10:45 AM • permalink
- We don’t hear much from the ZPGers in the US anymore because everybody knows the native population here has leveled off. The population growth stems mostly from illegal immigration, and mentioning that in polite liberal company would be…er, racist.
Example: I had an argument with the Fish and Game people here about coyotes who are killing the neighborhood pets one by one. They refuse to capture or kill them because “they were here first” and our population growth has taken their habitat. I said, until you get together with the other liberals and stop illegal population growth, you owe me and the family cat a safe place to live! End of discussion.
- If they’re so woried about the environmental impact of America’s (gasp!) growing population, why aren’t a couple Reuters journos or a few of the more dedicated environmentalists (Al Gore springs immediately to mind) the first ones volunteering to go into the ol’ Logan’s Run “carousel”?
Hasn’t the light in Al’s hand been blinking for a few decades now?
Governor-Generalissimo (For-Life-Eh)
By God, you are Canadian! You speak the language fluenty!!!!!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 04 at 07:32 PM • permalink
fluently
Unlike my command of American…..
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 04 at 07:33 PM • permalink
300 million people may sound like a lot but the USA comes in at 172nd place in the world for population density.
hey, we’re working as fast as we can… maybe we need to put more men on the job…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 10 04 at 08:17 PM • permalink
- Well, at any rate, I thank Mother Gaia every day that old Herr Vanguard got on that boat 150 years ago!Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 10 04 at 09:07 PM • permalink
We don’t hear much from the ZPGers in the US anymore because everybody knows the native population here has leveled off.
Well, sorta. It turns out those unsophisticated red staters are reproducing merrily, while their nuanced betters in the red states are following the European model and failing to reproduce at even a maintenance level. Some folks call it the “Roe” effect.
But it seems likely that the end of the American left is biologically certain, at this point. That’s why the Democrats are so desperate to legalize the felon and immigrant votes…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 10 04 at 09:36 PM • permalink
- #55 Andy,
I like to visit Canada in August, after the summer thaw.I can get along in Canadian well enough, since I say Eh a lot anyway. Getting along in Strine would be another matter entirely.
#66 Richard,
Don’t exagerate. The Democrats will never lack for voters so long as the cemetaries are full.Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 10 04 at 10:52 PM • permalink
- P.J. O’Rourke lifted that metaphor from John Brunner: “Stand on Zanzibar” (dystopic Science Fiction novel, well worth the read, Hugo winner 1969).
Its title refers to an early twentieth century claim that the world’s population could fit onto the Isle of Wight (area 381 km²) if they were all standing upright.
Brunner remarked that the growing world population now required a larger island—the 3.5 billion people living in 1968 could stand together on the Isle of Man (area 572 km²), while the 7 billion people whom he projected would be alive in 2010 would need to stand on Zanzibar (area 1554 km²).
Oh, and may I say thatI, for one, welcome our new Rovian Overlords.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 10 05 at 04:08 AM • permalink
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