[Newfie]

Driving around here I see two things that are contradictory.

This is a heavy agricultural area but also large amounts of woodland, frequently monoculture pine planted for future harvest. When left to grow naturally I see hard/soft wood mixes.

I occasionally see mixed woods being clear cut and turned into ag land. You can tell by the stumps there was a lot of hardwood.

But I also see ag land being planted in solar panels in roughly equal measure.

In aggregate it is the equivalent to cutting forests to plant solar farms.

[suxs]

The largest consumer of land in the United States is due to population growth of 2 million each year. Every 24 hours, 6,000+ acres are lost forever. That's 3,422 square miles each year.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the United States is PERMANENTLY losing 6,000 acres of open land - much of it forested - to development each day. Suburban/exurban development is converting forested and agricultural land into housing, parking lots, roads, and other forms of infrastructure.

[yellowcanoe]

The largest consumer of land in the United States is due to population growth of 2 million each year. Every 24 hours, 6,000+ acres are lost forever. That's 3,422 square miles each year.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the United States is PERMANENTLY losing 6,000 acres of open land - much of it forested - to development each day. Suburban/exurban development is converting forested and agricultural land into housing, parking lots, roads, and other forms of infrastructure.

Unfortunately the response of most environmentalists to this problem is to promote intensification, not stopping population growth. That's exactly the situation I see here in Ottawa, Canada. Our population of 1,000,000 is projected to grow 40% over the next 25 years to 1.4 million. Environmental groups are up in arms at more urban sprawl but they don't object to the population growth itself. Of course a significant percentage of people really want to live in a detached house so continued construction of roads and suburban neighbourhoods is inevitable.

[Newfie]

Chicken Coup Earth.

[suxs]

Environmental groups don't object to population growth.

Will you please flesh out this comment with a bit more detail?

I THINK what you are suggesting (although if I'm in error, my apologies) is all too often environmental groups are silent on the issue of human population growth. Yes, I'm afraid you are right and I will tell you why this is the case. As I know that you are aware, the subject of curtailing human population, even if presented as a non-compulsory, optional strategy such as birth control, is for a certain sub-set of the population (the anti-choice crowd) equivalent to concentration camps and forced sterilization. There is NO middle ground. Environmental groups have learned through the school of hard knocks that it's best to avoid this topic and focus on their stated objective.