Links related to Can America Survive?

The thesis of Can America Survive? is that when fossil fuels deplete (over the next few decades), the global human population of Earth will drop to the number of people that can be supported on solar energy, which is less than 500 million. The actual number will depend on the level of living. At a high level of living, the number will be far less than 500 million (e.g., five or ten million).

Winston Churchill once remarked, "The further backward you look, the further forward you can see." The world’s human population will be less than 200-300 million in a few decades (after fossil fuels are gone), because that is the most that the recurrent "budget" of solar energy can support. The only real issue is whether the global human population is reduced to that level very soon (i.e., in the next few years), thereby saving the environment and the planet’s biodiversity, or is reduced to that level (or less, perhaps zero) after mankind destroys the planet and most if not all other living species.

The best web site with information about the relationship of population to energy is Jay Hanson’s web site, http://www.dieoff.com . In addition to much useful information on the front page, that web site provides links to many source documents, such as The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan, The Coming Oil Crisis by C. J. Campbell, Land, Energy and Water: The Constraints Governing Ideal U.S. Population Size by David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel, and Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy, by David Pimentel and Mario Giampietro. Hanson's Energy Resources Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/messages features much lively discussion on energy-related issues.

For a good summary of the issues, see Dr. Ross McCluney’s article, "How Many People Should the Earth Support," at http://www.vicnet.net.au/~aespop/maxpop.html .

The web site http://solutions.synearth.net , tab CommUnity, features many interesting articles on the current state of the Earth (new articles posted daily, from a variety of sources.

A comprehensive site on the US immigration crisis is Immigration ProCon, at http://www.immigrationprocon.org .

With respect to the social and environmental destruction that will take place as human population continues at high levels, much related information may be found at any of the large number of web sites that deal with population, environment and immigration. These include the following:

World Overpopulation Awareness: http://www.overpopulation.org . This web site contains much information, and many links to other population-related sites.

The Social Contract Press: http://www.thesocialcontract.com .

Carrying Capacity Network: http://carryingcapacity.org .

NumbersUSA: http://www.numbersUSA.com .

Negative Population Growth: http://www.npg.org .

Zero Population Growth: http://www.zpg.org .

Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org .

Global Warming Early Warning Signs: http://www.climatehotmap.org .

Federation for American Immigration Reform: http://www.fairus.org .

Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population: http://vicnet.net.au/~aespop/welcome.htm .

Broken links removed 9 December 2011