Introduction

If one surveys the range of challenges to sustainable development—from poverty, hunger, and desertification to collapsing fisheries and refugees—population growth reappears again and again as a root cause. Indeed, at a fundamental level, these forms of environmental degradation (and others too numerous to mention) cannot meaningfully be addressed without addressing population growth as well. This Article first explains why population growth warrants serious concern, both outside the borders of the United States and within, and then recounts the population commitments the U.S. government agreed to at Rio, Cairo, and Beijing. It then traces U.S. population trends, analyzes population policies over the last decade, and assesses whether these efforts are furthering the goal of sustainable development. While the U.S. government states that it has no population policy, the facts belie this claim. Over the last decade, the nation's population has grown more than over any 10-year period in U.S. history, with significant environmental impacts resulting both at home and abroad. This is due to a number of policies that have demographic effects—ranging from immigration regulations and restrictions on abortions to the tax code and foreign aid. In its preparations for Johannesburg, the government needs to deepen the nation's commitment to recent international agreements on population and development. Equally important, the U.S. government has not engaged in a serious consideration of the nation's carrying capacity and the related issues of resource consumption and development that this entails. Unless we confront these physical facts, and corresponding ethical implications, we cannot and will not establish a meaningful or effective policy for managing population growth in the United States.