By Frosty Wooldridge
After having finished the 11-part series on “Will America Survive Another 100 Million Immigrants?”, a flood of emails poured into my computer.
“Mr. Wooldridge,” one reader said. “Covid is Nature’s revenge. Humans cannot keep doing what they are doing and expect a picnic from Mother Nature. Americans may be the most irresponsible people on the planet. Our consumption rates cannot continue.”
Another email writer said, “Why would someone want to destroy America? It’s the most successful country in the world. It’s why over a billion people would migrate here in a nano-second if given the chance.”
Time Magazine’s Indian immigrant staff writer Fareed Zakaria said, “We need to rethink how we live.” That’s pretty amazing coming from a guy whose country overwhelms Nature with 1.3 billion people on its way to 1.55 billion by 2050. He escaped to America to escape from India’s horribly overloaded civilization.
Let’s talk about consumption rates: Americans consume natural resources like 330 million Kansas wheat combines. We burn 20 million barrels of oil every single day of the year. We use and waste trillions of gallons of water. We eat everything in sight.
Globally 90,000,000,000 (billion) animals suffer slaughtering annually. In the USA, we kill 7 billion chickens annually to feed our citizens. We kill another 800,000 beef cows for meat 24/7. Over 43 billion animals have been killed for food in the USA already this year. What does it take to fatten up those cows? It takes 16 pounds of corn or grain to put a pound on a beef cow and 2,500 gallons of water for every pound added. Not only that, cows crap 40 to 50 pounds of manure daily. It’s insane what it takes to bring a beef cow to market.
What’s the problem? Animal products provide only 18 percent of calories worldwide yet take up to 80 percent of earth’s farmland. Those massive farm operations serve as petri dishes for viruses.
“Selection for specific genes in farmed animals has made animals genetically identical,” said Sigal Samuel, agricultural specialist. “That means that a virus can easily spread from animal to animal without encouraging any genetic variants that might stop it in its tracks.”
From that report, he predicted that Covid won’t be the first or the last pandemic facing humans in the 21st century. As we add another 3 billion of ourselves by 2050, it’s going to get really cozy as we cram 10 billion of ourselves together on this finite planet. Just what viruses like!
Whether you understand “catastrophic climate destabilization” as I discovered it in Antarctica in 1997-98, we are now watching it burn 5 million acres of land in California, Oregon and Washington State. We’re seeing 120 degrees in San Diego in late September. We’re watching our carbon footprint dumping billions of tons of carbon into our oceans along with particles. We’re seeing the skies over our cities turn yellow-brown with particulate.
Anybody think that’s going to turn out well for our children? What happens when we add that next 100,000,000 (million) immigrants to America? How will we feed and water our top 35 cities when they double in population numbers? How’s that going to work out for us?
How much damage are we doing to Nature? Today, 75 percent of all land has been severely altered by human actions along with 66 percent of the world’s marine environments. I’ve reported that we kill 100 million sharks annually and have been since 1990. Any thought about killing the whales and fish stocks via 20-mile-long drift nets behind massive trawlers?
What about pollution? Have you done anything about the 5,000,000,000,000 (trillion) pieces of plastic now floating or sunk into Earth’s oceans? How about the 70,000 chemicals that we spew into the air, land and water 24/7? What about it all landing in the oceans and accumulating? Have you eaten any radiated fish lately from Japan’s nuclear disaster four years ago?
Scientist Nobel winner Joshua Lederberg said, “Human beings’ continued economic and scientific advancement is the greatest threat to every other plant and animal species, as we crowd them out in our own quest for resources.”
Lederberg added, “We do have one competitor for dominance, and it could ultimately win: viruses.”
With creatures like ourselves, even the stars aren’t safe. Notice we spend trillions of dollars on spaceships to the moon and Mars as if anyone wants to live on a planetary rock. Star Trek created great science fiction, but the fact remains, humans are not going anywhere.
Mr. Zakaria offered some of the most ridiculous solutions I have ever read. He wants America to engage a “carbon tax.” He promoted more responsible economic development. What a bunch of malarkey!
None of it will work if we add another 100 million people to our country. That multiplies every consequence we see in America today by a factor of 100 million. Why is it THAT reality lost on virtually all the experts in this country?
When you read sobering if not depressing information like this, what do you do? How do you feel? What kind of actions are you taking in your community? Are you calling up your TV station to ask for an interview about stopping development that overruns your area? Have you called your Congress Critter and Senators? Has anyone given any thought to stopping the main driver: endless legal immigration? If not now, when, and if not you, then who?
© 2020 Frosty Wooldridge – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Frosty: frostyw@juno.com
