In a country where population growth will make it half the size of China by 2045 and 1 billion by 2100 (if there is any food left),[1] one state - Vermont - is managing to control its population growth, apparently.
Vermonters who have chosen to limit their family size because of their concern about the impacts of population growth on the environment and quality of life will be celebrating that Vermont’s population did not grow in 2012. They will gather at Oakledge Park in Burlington on June 22 from 10-2 to share their stories and hear speakers. Organizers will also distribute 500 colorfully wrapped and worded “Endangered Species Condoms” because it is over human population that is causing the sixth great extinction. The theme of the celebration is, “A Sustainable Vermont and More Love.”
The speakers will include Jerry Karnas, Population Campaign Director at the Center for Biological Diversity (www.biologicaldiversity.org) and Vermont’s own globe-impacting Bill Ryerson, Director of the Population Media Center based Shelburne, Vermont. (www.populationmedia.org)
George Plumb, the executive director of Vermonters for Sustainable Population, in announcing the event states that, “Instead of lamenting Vermont’s very small decline in population in 2012 Vermont should be celebrating. If we lived with a responsible ecological footprint instead of our current life style, which now consumes the resources of the equivalent of a land area at least two times the size of Vermont, a truly sustainable population size would be about half of what it is now. Given the disastrous effects that global warming is already having on Vermont and the planet we should be thinking long term and not just about short term economic gain that primarily benefits developers.”
Bill Ryerson, one of the speakers at the event, praised Vermonters for Sustainable Population for holding this celebration. “Vermont is the first state in the U.S. to provide an opportunity for people to come together on a statewide basis to recognize the individual moral responsibility not to over-procreate. People can choose to have no, one, or two children and still enjoy life, while at the same time helping to ensure that future generations of people, and indeed all life on Earth, will have a high quality environment in which to live.”
To learn more about the event go to the web site of Vermonters for Sustainable Population at www.vspop.org.
- See more at: #sthash.QlFtXbHz.dpuf">http://vtdigger.org/2013/06/12/lets-celebrate-vermonts-stable-population-size/#sthash.QlFtXbHz.dpuf
NOTES
[1] If growth rates continue. The population of the US in 2000 was 281,421,906. Between 1990 and 2000 the total population of the US grew by 1.32% per year. If that 1.32% population rate continued during the 21st century, there would be over a billion people by 2100 in the United States.
2000: 281,421,906
2010: 320,855,664
2020: 365,815,010
2030: 417,074,207
2040: 475,516,011
2050: 542,146,871
2060: 618,114,265
2070: 704,726,460
2080: 803,475,039
2090: 916,060,592
2100: 1,044,422,001
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