Why we should be concerned about population growth elsewhere. Population growth anywhere in the world ultimately has an impact on the entire planet. Most environmental problems, such as air and water pollution and global climate change, transcend national boundaries. As population grows, whether in the U.S.A. or anywhere else, demands for resources increase, adding to pollution and waste. More energy is used, escalating the problems of global warming, acid rain, oil spills and nuclear waste.
More land is required for agriculture, leading to deforestation and soil erosion.
More homes, factories, and roads must be built, reducing agricultural land still further as well as habitat for other species, leading increasingly to their extinction. As population grows in distant countries with extremely low wages, production lines will be exported from our country to those, thus causing a shortage of jobs where we live. One example of the interconnectedness of our planet's environment is the depletion of tropical rainforests. Rainforest destruction is not only causing a grave loss of biodiversity, it is also upsetting the atmosphere's climate control capabilities. Political conflicts arise from refugees fleeing overpopulated and environmentally degraded areas in search of more benign conditions, or from concerns over the rights to finite natural resources like oil fields, water resources, or land.