Open Spaces, Urban Sprawl and Overpopulation   When we talk about the effects of overpopulation they are generally on an international level, in terms of the growing shortages of food, water, fuel, medical services or similar items, plus the increasing levels of pollution. For example the millions of people who are starving in Africa, the destruction of the forests in South America, or the lack of clean drinking water in Bangladesh. These are extremely critical problems, but sitting in our comfortable homes they appear remote to us. We feel sorry for these unfortunate people, but we cannot see any way that this can affect our day to day way of life. Overpopulation is looked on as problem that does not really affect us.

However if we open our eyes, the effects of overpopulation on our day to day living can be clearly seen all around us, especially in the outlying suburbs of our great cities. These effects have developed over the years and therefore we have become used to them and accept them as the normal growth of our society. But that philosophy is changing dramatically. "Save our open spaces" is the subject of many "letters to the editor" in our suburban papers. Residents groups are springing up in many areas in an attempt to halt or at least slow down the continuing development that is spreading farther and farther out from our cities. What was once farmland and forest is now covered with houses, supermarkets, shopping malls and business premises. Country roads now have traffic lights at every corner and traffic jams every night and morning. In spite of the introduction of tougher environmental standards pollution is creeping into almost every source of water.

Although this form of destruction of the rural life style has become very obvious, there is a continuous drive for more development. We are told that development is necessary for the following reasons.

To hold down property taxes.

To provide employment.

To improve our life style (in spite of the problems it causes.)

Most of this is of course absolute nonsense and totally untrue. Development has one primary purpose and that is to make a profit for the developer, never mind how it impacts the residents of the area. We only have to note the frequent and lengthy legal hassles that ensue when new developments are proposed. However even profit is not the basic driving force behind development. When we strip away the politics, the emotions and the philosophical ideas, the ultimate cause is our expanding population. Development is the obvious way of profiting from the demand this generates.

For example, the demand for housing has driven up the cost of a home in many cities to the point where the average worker finds it financially impossible to live there except in subsidized housing. Even in the suburbs, the demand has driven up housing costs until the only option has been to accept the hours of commuting time and seek an affordable home in the countryside. However what was an acceptable price for a home there only a few years ago has now rocketed to the point where it too is unaffordable and the unfortunate home seeker has to look even further afield. The ultimate consequence is an ever expanding area of homes, shops, factories and other business premises that is slowly but surely destroying all the open space around our cities. We read of plans to minimize the effect of our growing suburban and commuting population. For example the call for higher density housing in our cities and public or subsidized homes, but ultimately the only solution is to halt the population growth. We cannot provide more homes out of thin air, inevitably they demand land, utilities and roads. Their residents need services, all of which consume more land and other scarce resources. Meanwhile the level of pollution grows with the increasing population, and the countryside is destroyed forever.

A more efficient use of land can slow this destruction but as long as our population continues to grow, more land will be covered by houses, shops, schools, commercial buildings and the wide expanses of blacktop for parking lots, roads and driveways. Inevitably pollution levels will continue to increase fouling the water and air. Slowing population growth and eventually arriving at a stable level is the only way that this destruction of our countryside can be halted. There is a limit to the population our land can support and we may well have already exceeded that limit. It cannot be determined solely from the number of people per square mile but rather from the effects of the growing number of people on the natural resources. Several major cities are facing water shortages, some are even considering desalination to enable them to use polluted water or seawater for drinking, all have problems in getting rid of sewage and refuse.

Unlike the less fortunate peoples we have been able to use science and technology to hold back the effects of overpopulation, but this is like building a dam to hold back an ever rising tide. We can postpone the inevitable, but if the tide continues to rise, eventually we too will be overcome. So what can be done? This is the part of the solution that is seldom discussed, it is unpalatable and all too often pushed aside completely because it is contrary to personal, political and religious beliefs. But if we are to survive we must stop the tide from rising and flooding over the dam. We must develop effective birth control and see that it is used effectively. We must also stop the flood of immigrants that make up a large part of our population growth, and encourage them to stay in their own countries and reduce their own population growth to acceptable levels.

     December 2002   Ralph Woodgate