Good news on population growth

Yes, that headline is correct. Enough with the doom and gloom over over-population!

Here’s an uplifiting commentary, complete with well-researched statistics and reasoned analysis, on the burgeoning growth of this country.

WITHIN A WEEK or so, the Census Bureau will declare that the population of the United States has reached the 300 million mark. As I write this sentence, the bureau’s Population Clock, found at http://www.census.gov , reads 299,901,023. It took thousands of years for the population of what’s now called the United States to reach 100 million, a milestone achieved in 1915; 52 years, to 1967, to add the next 100 million; and 39 years, to 2006, to add the next 100 million. And there are more coming, as the U.S. population is projected to reach perhaps 400 million around mid-century, and may continue climbing beyond that. Whoops, the Population Clock now says 299,901,426. I must learn to type faster!

This is amazing. An honest report on the true impact of our growing population across a range of factors and impact points, and it’s all good and hopeful!!

The rising population will bring with it more: more of everything. More people, more sprawl, more creativity, more traffic, more love, more noise, more diversity, more energy use, more happiness, more loneliness, more fast food, more art, more knowledge, maybe even more wisdom. Today the United States is 50% larger in population and development footprint than a mere four decades ago, and if current trends hold, four decades from now it will be a third larger still. That means our national infrastructure must grow by at least another third to accommodate further population — a third more highways, housing subdivisions, schools, trash landfills and everything else. I hope you like the United States, because there is a great deal more of it coming.

But as Gregg Easterbrook points out throughout this commentary, it’ll be okay. It will even be good, if you’re optimistic. And that’s taking into account the strain and growing pains.

An ever-greater U.S. population will bring problems uncountable in terms of land-use fights, traffic congestion, expansion into what are now wild areas and the eventual end of our national conception of America as a place of unlimited expanse. But the rising population also is a fantastic achievement. It means ever-more people are alive to experience love, hope, freedom and the daily miracle of the rising sun. None of us who today enjoy the privilege of being Americans should want to deny this privilege to the many more to come.

Read the whole piece. It’s the best news on the very realistic future of America out there. He even takes into account the longer years the population has to enjoy life.

There is one worrisome scenario on population growth: an anti-aging breakthrough extends the human lifespan so much that the U.S. population peaks not at 400 million but 500 million or 600 million. That’s hard to fathom, even for an optimist like me. Meanwhile, as I finish this, the Population Clock just hit 299,902,625. I must learn to think faster!