Environmentalists say water pollution, fish kills, erosion can all, directly or indirectly, be attributed to population growth along the coasts. An estimated 20,000 acres of coastal wetlands are lost every year to development or erosion. In Florida, state and local leaders have long wrestled with the challenges of extraordinary growth. An average of 760 people a day moved into Florida throughout the 1980s. The state has been a leader in forcing local government to draft comprehensive growth management plans, trying to balance the often contrary needs of tourists, farmers and residents.
Environmentalists say little is done to discourage development along ecologically sensitive areas.
They point to the national flood insurance program as well-intentioned but misguided. While residents who lose their homes to natural disaster are reimbursed, the insurance program encourages people to build in areas that seem ill suited for much development. Even more troubling to some groups is the mindset of the American consumer. While recycling has caught on in many communities, Americans remain the world's most voracious consumers of energy. Americans constitute about 5 percent of the world's population, but they consume 24 percent of the world's energy.