By Marc Ross / Source: HuffPost

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In 2014, our planet added approximately 80 million new Earthlings. That equates to the population of California, New York and Florida added to a world with depleting natural resources, unprecedented water scarcity and citizens with a “throwaway” mentality. As scientists predict that Earth’s population will only continue to grow, our fate will be determined by strides toward sustainable life now and in the future.

Population growth is an issue that transcends age, race, religion and borders. It touches on every environmental issue facing our planet — clean water, energy usage, public lands and wilderness use, endangered species, raw materials and food. And yet, it is the one issue that most major environmental organizations are not mentioning, let alone addressing. Humankind needs to become more educated on this topic. It’s vital to the survival of our species.

Take a second to think about the following statistics:

• 1 billion people are added to the planet every 12 years.
• Today, nearly 1 billion people do not have access to food and safe drinking water.
• 2.2 million acres of forest and ranch land are destroyed every year in the U.S, due to sprawl.
• Deforestation limits our planet’s ability to control temperature.
• Every human generates 4.3 lbs. of waste per day.

One can easily grasp from these numbers that a growing population in a habitat with diminishing resources is not only detrimental, but is deadly.

Consider water. We rely on water for sanitation, sustenance and agriculture. What’s mind-boggling is that only 2.5 percent of the Earth’s water is fresh, and we only have access to one percent of it! What’s more, UN research suggests that water usage is growing at twice the rate of the population and that by 2025, approximately 23 percent of the population will live in an area affected by water scarcity. Our growing population is and will further strain our diminishing freshwater, and has already been the cause of domestic unrest in the U.S. (for example, “The American Nile”).

Another serious issue is waste. We often treat Mother Earth as a perpetual trash can. Too often the “use and throw away” mentality trumps all. The public is bombarded with products that are not designed for reuse. The trash often provides the graveyard for modern consumerism.

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