Outside the box

Are we losing paradise?
By Don Klein

The Census Bureau tells us that the population of the United States grows by one every 11 seconds. That means there are 7,855 new Americans every day or an annual growth of just under 3 million.  That figure is projected to reach 300 million by October.

The number of people in the U.S. could reach 420 million by 2050. Compared with many countries, however, the U.S. is lightly populated. In worldwide figures, it is just a drip in the budget. The present global population of 6.5 billion will blossom to 9.1 billion in 2050, predicts the UN.

Because of immigration U.S. population growth rate is comparable to that of China, but the actual numbers are nowhere compatible. China is expected to have close to a billion and a half people by 2050.

Irrespective of national population figures the real problem as more people populate a finite land mass is food. This year's world grain harvest, for example, is expected to fall short of consumption by 61 million tons. That's the sixth time in the past seven years that production has failed to satisfy demand, according to the Earth Policy Institute in Washington.

This shortage will only get worse as the years pass and since grain is used as a basic measure of food security, it is clear where the world is headed: towards worldwide food shortages and further human deprivation.

Of course we do not know at this time how advances in science and technology will affect food production in the decades ahead. However, we do know that reportedly there were more than 800 million people in the world considered to be existing in a state of hunger in 2002. Predictions of widespread famine have been made in the past and seldom materialized, so let us stay away from that inconclusive subject.

Just look at the disparaging aspects of population growth that we are experiencing here in the prime resort area of the Eastern Shore. When I first came here 37 years ago Ocean City was not even half of what it is today and Ocean Pines was a sleepy little off the beaten track hamlet.

The Convention Center for all intents was the northern edge of the resort, even though there were scattered restaurants, dwellings and hotels farther north. Coastal Highway from the forties to the Delaware line was basically a speedway with lots of open terrain and little traffic. The trip was swift. Try that route this summer to measure the difference. Just imagine the problems of mobility with an increase of 40-50 percent more people and the concomitant traffic.

The most recent census showed that Ocean Pines has surpassed Ocean City in population. Today there is not much virgin land left to build on in the Pines and virtually none in Ocean City, but that has not stopped growth. Between now and 2050 you can bet that the development that is now starting to be seen in places like Bishopville and Berlin will spread all the way out to Salisbury in the west and Georgetown, DE, in the north.

There are plans now to build a multi-thousand home development outside of Snow Hill, and you can be sure that Pocomoke will not be far behind. Of course, when talking about the seashore it would not be wise to ignore the growth happening just north of us in Delaware.
I am not against growth. I cannot be because I am part of the problem, if growth is a problem. I established permanent residency here a dozen years ago, so I guess if I was condemning growth, I am as much to blame as anyone else.

No, what I am saying is that we must be prepared for the inevitable. Life will be changing not only around the globe as international population explodes in the next half century, but right here in our own backyard.

There is a fellow from Bulgaria I know who came to this town to work in a restaurant a couple of years ago. He loves it here and whenever I see him I ask him how he is doing.  His response is always the same: "Just another day in paradise."  He is young enough to still be alive 44 years from now and I wonder if he will still be talking about paradise in these parts at that time.

There is no way of knowing if local population trends will correlate to international predictions. Let us hope not, if only to avoid a paradise lost.

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