Here in the United States of America there is an overpopulation problem much different than that of India. One would not believe such to be true, but America’s population is a major concern due to our consumer habits. For example, one American uses as much energy as 2 Germans, 3 Swiss or Japanese, 6 Yugoslavs, 9 Mexicans, 19 Malaysians, 53 Indonesians, 109 Sri Lankens, 438 Malians, or 1072 Nepalese. The United States uses 25% of the world’s energy supplies such as fossil fuel, half of which is imported, it is the largest contributor of carbon dioxide, undesirable combustion products, and chlorofluorocarbons, chemicals that contribute to greenhouse warming and depletion of the ozone. Per day about 18 million barrels of oil is exhausted while each person produces 7 pounds of garbage (www.overpopulation.org). Multiply 7 pounds by the amount of people in our country and it shoots well over 900 billion pounds per day. Where does all this garbage go? To one of the many almost full landfills of course.

Our lifestyle is the real fear that needs to be addressed before it is too late. Thomas Donohue states, “in terms other than resource scarcity, the United States may shortly drive itself into overpopulation conditions when the demands of the people outpace the ability of society to deliver those goods.” This problem incorporates all aspects of society; social, political, and economic. Consequently, we have managed to maintain our careless way of life with minor tragedy through economic supremacy, though how long will this last? The National Wildlife Federation declared, “The world looks to the United States as a role model. It is hard to ask developing nations to implement environment saving techniques and stabilize their population growth when the U.S. is unwilling to do so."

Here in La Crosse city, we are just as responsible for our consumer habits as any other community in America. We also have a marsh that may be endangered of being developed due to the demands of a certain standard of living. Those standards include less congestion on our “busy” roads, more space for people to live, places to recreate such as golf courses, and even baseball fields for the colleges to utilize.

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