Is America Overpopulated? | The Population Factor S2E7 | EarthX - video Dailymotion

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EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/   What are the arguments FOR and AGAINST the notion that America is overpopulated?   About The Population Factor:  A series of key conversations examining the connection between our planet’s growing population & related issues. Expect to be educated on a range of topics including climate change, wildlife preservation, immigration policy & consumption patterns.    EarthX  Love Our Planet.  The Official Network of Earth Day.    About Us:  At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.     EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.       EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/    Follow Us:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia      How to watch:   United States:   - Spectrum  - AT&T U-verse (1267)  - DIRECTV (267)  - Philo  - FuboTV  - Plex  - Fire TV    #EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #Ecofriendly #Conservation #EarthX

Transcript

00:00Is America overpopulated? Today on The Population Factor, author and world traveler Frosty Wooldridge

00:08discusses his new book, America's Overpopulation Predicament, Blindsiding Future Generations.

00:30Is America overpopulated? Recently we passed 330 million people. How would we know whether

00:53we were overpopulated or whether we will soon be overpopulated? Joining me today to answer

00:58these questions is author Frosty Wooldridge, author of America's Overpopulation Predicament,

01:06Blindsiding Future Generations. Frosty, welcome to The Population Factor.

01:12Well, thank you very much, Phil. It's really a pleasure to be with you and everyone listening

01:16across the United States and certainly hopefully Canada and around the world. This kind of

01:21presentation will give each and every one of you an understanding of the predicament of

01:26overpopulation, not only here in the United States, but around the world. So, I'm appreciating

01:32that we're all in this together and hopefully we can all do something to change course. So,

01:38thank you so much. So, Frosty, you first encountered overpopulation on bicycle trips across

01:46India, Bangladesh, and China. But the question today is, is America overpopulated? And from

01:54where a lot of us sit, things are going pretty well. We feel like we're rich and we're

02:00living good lives. And I don't hear the politicians saying that we're too overpopulated

02:06or that we shouldn't keep growing. Why do you argue in your book that America is overpopulated?

02:14From my own experiences around the world, and certainly having traveled to all 50 states and

02:21all 10 Canadian provinces, it's not about space, you know, because there's vast amounts of space.

02:28If Antarctica wasn't a frozen wasteland, you could stick a whole civilization there, but

02:34their carrying capacity is absolutely zero. So, when it comes down to carrying capacity,

02:41it's again, you have to understand it's not about all the vast space that's in this country.

02:46What it has to do is with the energy and the resources to keep this civilization moving

02:53forward. But Frosty, some people will say, okay, in California, we've got a water shortage,

02:59for instance, but what we need to do then is conserve and use water more efficiently.

03:05And if we do that, we can support our current population or even a larger one.

03:09What would you say to that? That's called cognitive dissonance.

03:13In other words, intellectual denial of reality. And California right now has 39 million people,

03:20but within the next 30 to 40 years, it's going to have another 20 million added. So, it's going to

03:24go from 39 to 49 to 59 million. And so, at some point, whether it's 59 million or 90 million or

03:32100 million, you're going to have to understand that there's not going to be enough water

03:37to irrigate the crops, to water the people, to flush the toilets, and to keep a balance.

03:46Nature always keeps a balance. So, either we maintain a balance of human population,

03:53or Mother Nature is going to do it for us. And she does it around the world right now.

03:57Starvation levels are at 4 million for children around the globe and 8 million for adults. So,

04:03that's 12 million people every year. That's documented by the UN.

04:07But we don't have that kind of starvation here in the United States. So, again,

04:12when someone like Matthew Iglesias writes a book called One Billion Americans, the case for

04:18thinking bigger, he argues that we can be more efficient, we can keep the balls in the air,

04:25so to speak. What kind of evidence do we have that we really might be pushing up

04:32at or past carrying capacity in the United States?

04:37Well, we're not sustainable right now. Again, we import 7 out of 10 barrels of oil,

04:42and oil is what keeps this game going. And so, at some point, and certainly according to some

04:49of the finest authors out there, oil is going to be completely exhausted on this planet by

04:56mid-century, certainly at the rate it's being used at over 100 million barrels every day.

05:04And I think the latest figures are that China, which puts around 27 million new cars net gain

05:12on their highways every year, by 2030, they'll be using 98 million barrels of oil per day

05:18themselves. So, you're looking at 200 million barrels of oil that will quickly

05:24drain the reserves of the planet. So, we are essentially, again, riding the Titanic.

05:32Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic, well, he just kept speeding toward New York,

05:37not realizing, or didn't care, or just completely denied the fact that there were icebergs out

05:42there. Well, everybody that says, let's let America grow and grow, and somebody like Iglesias,

05:48and I read his book, he doesn't understand numbers. Well, I'm a math and science teacher,

05:53and the fact is, this country will not survive a billion people any more than India is. And then

06:00you have to start speaking about the quality of life. What kind of quality of life do we want?

06:05Do we want to have Denver, Colorado, with 2.7 million people go to 10 million? Do we want

06:10another New York City? Do we want Chicago? Or do we want 11 million out of LA? So, this is a good

06:16question. I mean, there's the question of, can we support, let's say, 10 million people in the

06:23Denver area instead of two and a half million? Then there's the question of, is it a good idea

06:29in terms of the quality of life of the people living there? I think, and you and I both live

06:34in Colorado, I think most Coloradans would say, no, we don't want to quadruple our population.

06:40But I want to get to another aspect of this, which I think you bring out very nicely in your book.

06:46Let's say we could support 10 million people in the Denver area, or a billion Americans. And

06:52let's say we could even do that with a good quality of life. What about all the other animals, the

06:58other plant species that we're displacing? Does that question figure into how you think about

07:04overpopulation? Well, yes. And I think it's about a moral and an ethical question. Do we as a

07:13cognitive species have the right, or do we have the imperative to keep expanding our numbers

07:19and then create extinction rates that are running around 100 species a day or vanishing off the

07:24planet right now? And in fact, E.O. Wilson out of Harvard, the great biologist, said that we could

07:30lose a third of all animal life on the planet by 2050. That's a blink in time, only 29 years from

07:37now. So each person has to ask themselves, do they want to be a part of causing the hummingbird

07:43to go extinct, or the whale to go extinct, or the dolphin, or the rattlesnake, or the gopher,

07:48or simply the prairie dog, or the hawk that feeds? So you have to really look at the big picture here,

07:57not just the, oh, we can expand all these numbers and have all these people added to the detriment

08:03to the natural world. The natural world is what sustains us, and if we lose that, we lose ourselves,

08:09essentially. So in the end, you really don't think people can have good lives, flourishing lives,

08:15unless we connect with nature, and unless there's some wild nature there left to connect to?

08:22Well, that's correct. You know, I just came back from Glacier National Park just this last month,

08:27also Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons, and I was also in Moab, and the crush of people

08:36is absolutely, I couldn't even get into Rocky Mountain National Park this past week,

08:41because there are lottery reservations. That's right. And if you're unlucky enough,

08:47you may never get to see Rocky Mountain National Park with another 100 million people that are

08:52projected to land on America here by 2050. And so we have cheated ourselves out of the

08:58national parks, because lottery numbers is the only way they're going to let you get in.

09:02But then when you get into Glacier, which I did, guess what? It's wall-to-wall people.

09:10You don't connect with nature. You're just simply running into other people on the trail.

09:14The same thing's going on in Colorado right now. I-70 on the weekends is just a gridlock,

09:2190 miles long, all the way to Summit County, because there's so many people. In fact,

09:26I've actually asked some of, in some of my columns, what is the carrying capacity of Colorado? But

09:33what is the quality of life capacity of Colorado? And those could really be two different things,

09:39couldn't they? I mean, again, we might be able to sustain 10 million Coloradans, or 10 million

09:46people in the Denver area, 20 million Coloradans, or whatever it might be. But really, in the

09:51process, we could, it's interesting, we could all sort of get richer and wind up being poorer

09:57somehow. Well, and there's exactly what's happening. And having seen that in Bangladesh,

10:05and then having seen that in China, and certainly India, the greatest democracy in the world,

10:11they have so many problems that at some point, when you grow the numbers, you cannot solve the

10:19problems. So, I mean, this is one aspect of this that it could be a little hard for people to

10:27wrap their minds around, especially maybe younger viewers, because they hear a couple of old dudes

10:32like you and me talking about population or overpopulation. And they really might not have

10:38a sense of, you know, how much things can change. 100 years ago, India had about 200 million people,

10:45now they have 1.3 billion people. And if you had asked an Indian 100 years ago, well, the trajectory

10:52seems to be that we're going to have four or five times as many people in 100 years, they probably

10:57wouldn't have thought that was possible. But but apparently it was. So I think what you and Matthew

11:03Iglesias are both saying is, we might wind up with a billion people. The difference is he's excited

11:09about it. And you as an environmentalist really, really aren't. Well, that's exactly correct. And

11:15what I deal with not in my emotions is with facts. And the fact is, that the higher the numbers in

11:23this country, the more restrictions on your freedom, the more restrictions and the higher

11:29costs of living, because water is going to cost more to put that water into your tap. And at some

11:34point, you will not have water in the tap, that is going to be a numbers game. And it will come

11:41about at some point, ask anybody from Bangladesh, ask anybody from India, ask anybody from China,

11:48why do you think so much of the rest of the world wants to come to America? Well, Indians are

11:54flooding into America, so are Chinese, so are Mexicans, because they have such lowered and or

12:02very lacking in quality of life and standard of living because they're so overpopulated. And so

12:08if we can take that kind of understanding, which came to me in 1984, realizing that overpopulation

12:16is the single greatest factor in every consequence that we're facing in the United States today,

12:24the air pollution over Denver is toxic air. Every breath you take is toxic air, particulate,

12:29carbon footprint, you name it. As your water, literally, prices go up, it's because too many

12:36people are drawing off the resources of the water. And at some point, the aquifers won't

12:41yield enough water. So for somebody like Iglesias to write that book, it was a very foolish book.

12:48It had no wisdom in it, it had no understanding of numbers, it had no understanding of resources.

12:54It simply was stuck, he put out there and amazingly, people agreed with him.

12:59But I think you've also, you know, got plenty of emotion behind your position too. I think the

13:04difference is, you know, what you and Iglesias might feel emotional about. You're emotional about

13:10preserving wild nature. I don't think that's really part of his vision. By the way, I don't

13:16want people to get the wrong idea about your book, which is a very good one. Again, the book is

13:20America's overpopulation predicament, blindsiding future generations. In that book, you make it

13:27clear that you don't see dealing with population as the answer to everything, the sole answer,

13:34the panacea. You argue for a lot of conventional environmental improvements, like getting rid of

13:42single use plastics, like energy efficiency. But you do think we're not going to be able to get a

13:49handle on those other issues if we just keep increasing our population. That is exactly correct

13:56and that will prove itself out. Again, at the end of the book, I give some of the finest authors who

14:02are on the same track that I'm on, and their predictions will prove out. Their understandings

14:10and their factual scientific research will prove out. And again, I can't say this enough, as human

14:18numbers go up, the consequences multiply also. I always say, if you have a 450-pound man

14:29and he's got heart disease, he's got bad knees, he's got cholesterol, he really can't go skiing,

14:35he certainly can't go for a run, he can't even do anything, would it be better to add another

14:42100 pounds to him so he would be 550 pounds, just because you wanted to add

14:48more weight? Or would it be better if he got himself back down to 200 pounds?

14:53Well, wouldn't Denver right now be a better place to live with only a million people?

14:58And wouldn't Los Angeles be better with only a million people, rather than 11 million people

15:02in the entire arena? And I lived in California back in 1965, when there were only 15 million

15:10people. Wouldn't it have been better to have people with forethought and a sense of responsibility

15:16to future generations to balance California's 15 million and keep it at 15 million, because we have

15:24the power to do that, rather than overrun the natural resources, the water sources, and so forth,

15:30and make LA is a nightmare to drive a car in today, and to breathe the air is a nightmare,

15:35the same in Chicago, and the same in New York City.

15:38So Frosty, if we're convinced that America is overpopulated at 330 million people,

15:44not that it might be someday, but that it is now, is there a path towards a more flourishing

15:50country with fewer people? What are the policies we might want to put in place

15:55to decrease America's population? Or is there simply no way to achieve that?

16:00There's always a way, Phil. And the fact is that the American female, since 1970,

16:07when birth control came in, has been averaging 2.03 children per woman since 1970. And so,

16:15we really paid attention to Earth Day, because that was the big call on Earth Day 1970. I was

16:21at Michigan State University, I was a senior that year, and graduated, and we all talked

16:27overpopulation, because it was happening to China, it was happening to India, it was happening to

16:31Mexico, it was happening around the world. And we changed, and so did Canada, and so did Europe,

16:38and so did Australia. All the Western cultures and Western countries really paid attention to

16:44Earth Day. The rest of the world didn't. And in fact, it went from 3.5 billion to add another 4.3

16:52billion, and now it's at 7.8 billion, headed for 10 billion within the next 30 or 40 years.

16:59So what specific policies do you see us putting into place to stabilize or decrease our population?

17:08Well, we are already decreasing it simply by having a 2.03 fertility rate that's gone down

17:15in 2021 to around 1.98. So we're doing a great job. And the simplest way to turn off the spigot

17:24is to stop mass and endless growth in our country by stopping mass immigration into our country,

17:31because we're absorbing no less than a million to a million two legal immigrants every year,

17:38and they're having a birth rate of around 900,000 per year, so that's about 2.1 million added net

17:44gain every year. And then according to Center for Immigration Studies with Mark Krekorian

17:51and Steve Camerota, we're taking in around 500,000 illegal migrants crossing the borders

17:58every year, so that's up around 2.6 million people. If we solve that problem alone,

18:06we would literally slow the Titanic, if you will, and give ourselves a chance for a viable and

18:13stable and sustainable civilization. So if immigration, legal and illegal, is running

18:20somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million annually, let's say that's been the average for the past

18:2620 years, how much would you like to see immigration cut into the United States?

18:33Well, I stated in my book, there are two ways we can go. First of all, just simply stop all

18:39immigration and help those countries and their people with food and water and whatever,

18:45in their own countries, because in the end, they're going to have to stay in their own

18:48countries anyway. We couldn't have all of China or India migrate to the United States to save

18:54themselves. We certainly couldn't have all of Mexico, because there are 129 million people.

18:59So we can't save the rest of the world. We can, however, save them in their own countries by

19:05showing them how to be sustainable. The other way to do it, my second way in my book,

19:11is to use the egress equals ingress equation. If 50,000 people leave the United States in 2021,

19:20then we could take in 50,000 people who would benefit the United States with skills and or

19:27abilities to function in our society. That would be a viable and reasonable solution.

19:33So let's say we cut immigration, maybe as drastically as you're suggesting,

19:38maybe somewhat less drastically, and got to a stable population. But as you describe in the

19:46book, we have pretty good evidence that 330 million Americans isn't itself sustainable.

19:52Let's say we asked the scientists and they came back with 100 to 150 million as a sustainable

20:00number. Are there policies that could get us towards that? Or do we just simply have to accept

20:06that America for the foreseeable future will be overpopulated?

20:11We have choices. One of my dear friends and yours, Jack Alpert, Dr. Jack Alpert from Stanford

20:18University, he has said that we need to be under 100 million. I would agree with that.

20:25When it comes to quality of life and sustainability into the future, then yes.

20:31At some point, I've also floated the idea that around the planet, the women around the planet

20:38need to come down to a one child per woman if the human race is going to survive the 21st century

20:44and all the other animals that are on this planet and bring the climate change into some kind of

20:50stability. But the real big key here is, and I want everyone to understand that,

20:55everything that drives population right now is made possible by gasoline, by oil. It has been

21:03shown that we are going to run out of oil sometime around mid-century, if not sooner or just a little

21:09bit later. And oil keeps this game going. So either we do something rational, reasonable,

21:16and logical to change our numbers to a sustainable level, or again, Mother Nature

21:22is going to do it for us. And I've already seen what Mother Nature has done. And I would like to

21:28do it with our reason and our minds and our choices, rather than wait for Mother Nature

21:35to do it for us. Well, Frosty, thank you so much for sharing this time with us. Again,

21:42the book is America's Overpopulation Predicament, Blindsiding Future Generations.

21:48You've given us a lot to think about today. Well, thank you. And I hope you all are not

21:52only thinking about it, I also in the book have three chapters on what you can do individually

21:57in your own community, in your own state, in the nation itself, and of course, internationally.

22:04We're all in this together. Brown, black, red, yellow, orange, all of us are human beings. We

22:10have choices. And I hope that we make positive choices so that when I'm gone off the planet,

22:16the progeny of the planet and the future human beings and the future animals have the same

22:21opportunities to travel the world, to see the sights, to express themselves. That's my greatest

22:27joy is to let future generations enjoy a thriving and viable planet and country here in the United

22:32States and abroad. Frosty Wildridge, thank you so much for being with us on The Population Factor.

22:38Thank you. I appreciate it, Phil.

Is America Overpopulated? | The Population Factor S2E7 | EarthX

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