Opinion: California using up natural resources
By Joe Guzzardi, Lodi News-Sentinel
For decades, federal, state and municipal governments have ignored the consequences of population growth. Despite California’s ongoing battle against too little water, the Club for Growth and Wall Street want more, more, more.
The 2012 birth rate drop triggered a series of near-panic mainstream media stories that a demographic zero hour might be looming. Reporters speculated that too few children would eventually mean fewer workers, less productivity and too many retirees.
That gloomy prediction is baseless speculation. What we know for sure is that, according to the Census Bureau, last year California’s population added 332,000 residents, which brought the state total to 38.2 million. Higher population created a demand for more natural resources, including, most importantly, water.