Demographers think we reached the first Billion in population around 1802. The second Billion was 1927. The third was 32 years later. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth were twelve years apart. Last year the 8,000,000,000^th was added to the population.

            The ninth billion will probably be reached about fourteen years from now or 2036. Some believe the following 14 years may see an addition of only 700 million by 2050. The pandemic killed millions but that was just a drop in the overall population. Wars like the Ukraine don’t even rate a blip. Climate change may slow the rate since it is already killing tens of thousands from flooding and starvation in Northern Africa.

            Creating the problem is healthcare for the aged who now are able to live longer so the old axiom of replacing oneself is outdated. Today it is not uncommon for a person to have their great, great grandchildren at their birthday party. That isn’t replacement; it’s an explosion. Even if it was only two kids per family that number at the party could be 30 descendants. I’m 75 with no offspring to suffer the future.

            Social Security was invented by FDR to help the senior citizen survive after retirement because pension plans didn’t exist for many people. Many people contributed to support each retiree but now that number may be around one to one which is impossible budget wise.

            With less people of working age to support the retirees the influx of immigrants is necessary for a good economy. The problem is the necessary influx increases the future number of retirees while increasing our total population. We have a housing shortage today at 340 million. What will it be like at 400 or 500 million? Just think! Only fourteen years to NINE BILLION!

        My first knowledge of population projections occurred about 1970 during one of my geography courses. Amazingly those projections haven’t changed much. Did the experts see a culture change in the advanced countries, cheap and easily available birth control, and advances in keeping people alive longer?

            The United Nations’ experts stated the eight billionth person was born somewhere on November 15. Their projections are another half billion in eight years and an additional 1.2 billion by 2050. Imagine 9,500,000,000 in another 28 years. Where will they live, how will they live, where will their food come from, and how will Climate change affect them?

            Most of the growth is said to be from Africa but India is going to surpass China with the largest population. China’s economic problem is shared by many other countries. Their population is skewing towards an older population which has retired from working. This means less people are working to support a greater retired group living longer. Cultural changes dictate small families using birth control and advancing health services keeping people alive longer.

            Climate change is causing a real disruption in where people will be living. The news is full of people needing to find other places to live due to drought, starvation, war and economic disruption. The Syrian War was caused by drought which caused Syrians to flee to Europe and Turkey. Drought in Africa is the reason for the exodus to Europe. A major cause of the immigration to the United States from Latin America is cropland destruction. Many low countries and island nations are preparing for the ocean to flood their surface land. Together with low lying cities a couple of billion will need to go some somewhere higher. They will be moving to much needed farmland.

Bob Wyman says my opinions are narrow-minded and unsubstantiated. Bob, everything you read with my name is factual and not off Fox News or the websites (Russian?) that you must use to get your information. You said my claims about climate change were unsubstantiated and wild predictions. I am quite confident of my predictions since seventeen out of seventeen federal science agencies and all three branches of the military and the coast guard agrees with me. So do the people in the cities and areas I said were already flooding from the rising oceans. Bob, hop in your car and wade the streets at high tides in those towns.

You criticized my population crisis projections which are readily available from many sources. Yes, my solutions were drastic and radical but the time to cut growth was years ago. Look around you Bob; we now have over 330 million in the United States. Imagine 500 or 600 million which we may have by the end of the century! I bet you are a baby boomer. When you were born the population was maybe 3 billion. It is now over 7 billion and growing. We are not going to get help from any religious group because they want to grow the faithful faster than the others. Currently we subsidize growth. The bigger the family, the bigger the subsidy. I suggested we need to eliminate deductions, spread contraceptives, and make the growth a moral issue. Bob, if you have ideas better than the ones I promulgated, the world awaits them.

The projections for temperature increase and rise of sea levels are for the end of the century and not for the centuries after. Those projections have already been found to be too conservative so your plans are urgently needed!

As critical a problem as the other planks of the “Chance For Sanity” party’s platform, this plank can only be partially solved by the American government. Our leaders have been concerned about flipping the population pyramid for decades. The pyramid is a representation of age groups and workers.

We currently have over 330 million people living in our country. The 2020 census should give us a closer number if it is done without bias and properly publicized. We have millions of undocumented people needing to be counted so census takers must be seen as non-threatening.

Natural increase from our current residents will add over sixty-five million people by 2050. The number of immigrants – legal and illegal – may add another 10 – 15 million to the natural growth. Both may mean we will have upwards of 420 million people looking for places to live, food to eat, clean water to drink and bathe, schools to educate, and jobs.

Rising ocean levels will cause people living in coastal cities to move to higher ground in the crowded cities, suburbs, or farther inland like Floridians. Many coastal cities are already experiencing flooding during high tides. They are changing building codes and zoning to try to get in front of the 50 year projected seawater rise. By the end of the century much of Florida may be flooded during king high tides and hurricanes. Those displaced Americans who choose to leave the flooding cities will most likely move to inland cities causing further congestion.

The additional growth will put more pressure on cities trying to absorb the increasing population with their aging infrastructure. All forms of transportation will be affected and need to be repaired from heavier use. This problem was covered by the infrastructure plank.

We must try to limit world-wide population growth by giving out all forms of free contraceptives to the developing countries. People must understand that having two kids is not replacement because they often have great-great grandchildren before they die. Chairman Mao’s idea of one child per couple only slowed their increase. My plan would be to eliminate all tax deductions and subsidies after one child. Decades ago we needed more children to work the fields and businesses so we promoted child rearing and that must end. I will use the tax code to subsidize couples with no children.

Economists have feared the flipping of the population pyramid for decades but we cannot continue to add billions forever. The sooner we address this problem the easier the reforms will be. Levees and walls will not stop a tsunami of starving people. Our lifeboat is already filled with people, so we must keep people in their home countries and reduce their population growth.