Our Country Is Totally Unprepared For The Future

By Frosty Wooldridge

Someone sent me this story sans an author: “If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside the cage, hang a banana on a string from the top and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.

“As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray him and all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while another monkey makes an attempt with same result … all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. Now, put the cold water away.

“Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.

“The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs.To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him.After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one.

“The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by the fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked.

“Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.  Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.

“Why, you ask? Because in their minds…that is the way it has always been!This, my friends, is how Congress operates… and this is why nothing changes for the better, and from time to time: all of the monkeys need to be replaced at the same time if you expect change for the better.”

Which brings me to the point of this column: our country, because of our “monkey” leaders and most of our citizens, is not prepared and will not prepare our civilization’s survival in the 21^st century. We stumble into each decade without a plan or clue as to the impact of adding the projected 100 million immigrants within 38 years.  We import 100,000 immigrants every 30 days as we have since 1965. 

Present U.S. population: 315 million.  Projected in 38 years by 2050: 438 million.  Immigration will have caused 90 percent of those 138 million additions. Environmental, social, quality of life and standard of living expected in 2050: degraded, dismal, depleted and unfortunate for countless millions of Americans.

A reader responded to one of my environmental-immigration pieces by saying that if we conserved more water and energy, and utilized our land more equitably, immigration wouldn’t be a problem.  In other words, he advocates for more and more people living on less and less. Never mind the strangled cities, species extinction rates,  water shortages, air pollution, energy depletion, carbon and ecological footprint facing our exploding numbers. It’s amazing how people overlook the details.

Every single environmental, resource, water, quality of life and energy crisis facing America in the 21^st century stems from more immigrants than the carrying capacity of North American can handle.

Sources for 438 million figure: (Sources: US Population Projections by Fogel/Martin, PEW Hispanic Center, US Census Bureau)

In the Denver Post yesterday, “Dropped cell phone calls, delayed text messages and choppy video streams could become more frequent occurrences because the airwaves on which that data travel are nearing capacity.”  Can you imagine in 2050 with 138 million more folks using cell phones?

What endless immigrants means for all of us around the planet

Author Juliet Eilperin said, “In Peru, fishing vessels haul 7.5 million tons of small fish out of the water every year. The Peruvian seabird population that used to number in the tens of millions has dropped to two million.”

Robert Engelman of www.worldwatchinstitute.orgnoted, “When you have China out roaming the seas looking for anything they can get to feed their population of 1.3 billion (and growing by 8 million annually, net gain on their way to 1.5 billion in 38 years), that’s increasingly affecting any local resources anywhere in the world.”

“If you look around the world, water quality is deteriorating, and water quantity is declining,” said Ned Breslin of Water for People.  Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia, Texas and Florida all face water shortages.

What I find it fascinating that reporters like NBC’s Ann Thompson will report on March 2012 being overwhelmed with the hottest days on record in America, but she never made one mention of humans  burning 84 million barrels of oil daily.  She said nothing about the US burning 2.2 billion tons of coal annually.  Thompson doesn’t think that burn rate makes an impact on our biosphere? 

Richard Heinberg wrote Peak Everything: Facing a Century of Declines. He said, “We have reached peak everything as to resources and because economic growth depends on natural resources and the Earth’s ability to process our wastes, this growth simply cannot continue.”

Africa, India, China and America create the most disastrous population growth in the 21^st century.  Africa will grow from nearly 1 billion today to 2.4 billion within 88 years.  Do any of the animal species in Africa stand a chance against such ravenous human onslaught?  Does America stand a chance as that extra billion starving Africans immigrate to America?

Back in the USA, can California support its projected 20 million additional immigrants within 30 years?   How about Florida, Arizona and Colorado doubling their populations?  Anyone excited about that? Californian writer Joe Guzzardi said, “In 1940, California was the nation’s fifth-largest state. As California approaches 40 million people, it’s the most populated and the most adversely impacted by sprawl and pollution. According to Forbes Magazine, California has four of the top five dirtiest cities in America.”

The United States represents a 5’10” 300 pound obese guy endlessly eating more ice cream to reach 400 pounds. He suffers clogged arteries ( much like our cities’ gridlocked traffic), he can hardly walk and he’s suffering from diabetes.  He keeps eating because he doesn’t have a plan for living.  The United States continues its obesity-growth path without a plan, either.  Ultimately, this civilization will collapse whether we like it or not, plan for it or not, understand it or not.

Will we change our future or will we continue doing the same thing just like the monkeys?   I write these clear and logical columns in order for you to become part of the change for a viable future.  We need to stop mass immigration into this country and we needed to do it 40 years ago.

In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls”, Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG, graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation.  Take five minutes to see for yourself:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE&feature=player_embedded

“Immigration by the numbers—off the chart”by Roy Beck

This 10 minute demonstration shows Americans the results of unending mass immigration on the quality of life and sustainability for future generations: in a word “Mind boggling!”  www.NumbersUSA.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muw22wTePqQ

BTW, please enjoy my new website: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, click this live link: http://www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

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