Opening Statement - Over Population in the United States

      The biggest concerns the country has with overpopulation is that there are not enough resources for every individual to obtain necessary resources. To live free of hunger and disease, to have the energy to manufacture goods and keep warm, to have places to live, water to drink, and to have social amenities like schools and hospitals. There are simply too many people to accommodate.


      According to The Demographic Facts of Life in the United States, the US is the third most populous country in the world following China and India. The U.S. population, currently more than 265 million, is growing by about 2.5 million people each year, making the United States one of the world's fastest-growing industrialized nations.
There are several impacts to this conclusion, such as:

• Because Americans eat a diet heavy in beef and other animal products, U.S. per capita grain consumption is four times higher than that of developing countries.
• Americans constitute five percent of the world's population but consume 25 percent of the world's energy. On average, one American consumes as much energy as 2 Japanese, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307 Tanzanians, or 370 Ethiopians.
• The United States is responsible for 22 percent of the world's industrial carbon dioxide emissions, a leading cause of global warming.
• In the last 200 years, the United States has lost 50 percent of its wetlands, 90 percent of its northwestern old-growth forests, and 99 percent of its tall grass prairie.
• Every day, an estimated nine square miles of U.S. rural land is lost to development.

      America and its population make a big impression on the world - but not a good one. The best way to control overpopulation, and possibly save our Earth, is

Promote condoms/birth control.

One common factor of unintended birth in the US is lack of condom use, or broken condoms and lack of birth control. If we promote condoms and birth control and people actually use them, the only babies being born won't be accidents and won't contribute to the death of the world as we know it.