IPFS
CONNECTING THE DOTS
Frosty Wooldridge
More About: Politics: General ActivismOur country is totally unprepared for the future
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 21st
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 21st 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.org
noted, “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 21st 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:
“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
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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