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REVIEWS
A staggering 100 percent of U.S. governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives, mayors, major newspaper publishers, editors and the current president of the United States ignore America's greatest crisis in the 21st century. Every presidential candidate ignores it from one end of this country to the other!
Across America, citizens go about their daily activities oblivious to the ominous consequences bequeathed to their children. Few think about or react to toxic air pollution, traffic gridlock, crowding and climate change.
What is this problem? Short answer: addiction to human population growth!
Each day America adds 8,200 more people. Annually, America grows by 3.1 million people. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts America to add 100 million people by 2040. Whether it's sooner or later, no matter how far down the wrong road you travel, stop! Turn around; go back and find a better path.
"THE POPULATION FIX: Breaking America's Addiction to Population Growth" by
Edward C. Hartman, provides stunning examples of our human folly. He illustrates his native California's demise via massive population overload. Hartman reports on what happened to California as it grew from 16 million in 1965 to its current population of 37.5 million in 2007. Far more sobering predictions show California adding 40 million by 2050 at current growth rates.
He introduces pertinent points that none of our leaders ask: "Our schools are too crowded we need to build more schools." The more intelligent answer must be raised, "If we stabilized our population, we wouldn't need more new schools if we stabilized our population, we wouldn't need to build more homes and roads."
Hartman asks, "How many Americans are enough? How many people would you like to see inhabiting this land seven generations from now?"
China and India never asked those questions fifty years ago. Today, at 1.3 and 1.1 billion respectively, their citizens exist like sardines in a can except they remain alive while gasping for breath and movement. As human numbers increase--freedom, fresh air, quality of life and standard of living decline.
Why did Hartman write the book? He's passionate about saving our wild places, our wild life, stopping air pollution, living within our carrying capacity and restoring our quality of life. No one deserves more cities like Los Angeles around this country.
Since the American female stands at a stable 2.03 fertility rate, the U.S. enjoys a stable population. However, massive inward migration from around the world drives our population growth. We either decide to control how many people we allow onto our "limited capacity lifeboat" or we sink.
Every airplane mandates a specific carrying capacity that cannot be exceeded. A restaurant cannot serve more than its limit. A pool cannot allow more than its capacity. A movie house cannot sell one more tickets than its limited seating.
It's time the United States moves toward: "National Carrying Capacity Policy" and "National Environmental Impact Policy" and "National Water Policy" and "National Sustainable Population Policy." By planning for a sustainable future for all citizens and animal life, the United States may lead the world toward a more viable and vibrant future.
Is Hartman optimistic about the future? Are you? Will we change course in time? It's up to each and every one of us. Hartman's book will give you greater perspective on your stake in the future for your children. I highly recommend reading it.
--Frosty Wooldridge, author, journalist, radio host, six-continent world traveler, and active populationist
The
Population Fix is an extraordinarily comprehensive analysis of the single most important factor affecting America's future--unsustainable population growth. Hartman demonstrates how population growth exacerbates every domestic problem facing the U.S. today and how it will necessarily rob future generations of the quality of life that past and present Americans have worked so hard to achieve.
Not content with simply explaining the causes and the effects of the population growth problem, Hartman offers a refreshingly honest, no-holds-barred examination of arguments posed by those who are keeping America addicted to rampant population growth in order to advance their own selfish interests. The Population Fix powerfully demonstrates how a combination of narrow self-interest, apathy, and ignorance is destroying America's future. It explains who are the victims of our explosive population growth, who are the addicts, the producers, the pushers, and who is enabling this addiction. Finally, he tells us what must be done to break this addiction.
This is an issue that should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country. It should be a major concern of every politician. It should be a cause of mass demonstrations. Hartman explains why it is not--exposing the dirty little secret of why America's addiction to population growth is deliberately hidden from the public and describing what we must do to avoid an environmental and societal disaster for future generations.
The Population Fix is a must-read for every American concerned about their descendants' quality of life and about their nation's future.
--Joseph L. Daleiden, Economist/Demographer/Author, in Population
Press, Spring 2007
Why have we in the US and the remainder of the world not heeded the persistent, if not prominently reported, cries to limit population? Think back to the question of who benefits from population growth. Many of us benefit in ways that are immediately perceptible. Real estate values increase. Cheap labor lowers consumer good prices. Businesses survive and profit from increased demand and cheap labor. Members of organized human groups and those who run them have more power and status for being larger.
Who loses? All of us do in the long run. Labor oversupply suppresses wages, promotes outsourcing and migration. We are already living off the bounty of the earth needed by future generations. We are stealing it from them. The sea is being mined of its fish, forests are being mined of their trees, farmland is being paved and rainforests are being clear-cut for pastureland. This is possible because we tend to discount consequences that are remote in either time or space.
For a well-written account of the interplay of these issues, read Edward C. Hartman's book, The Population Fix, Breaking America's Addiction to Population Growth.
--Roger Tracy in "Words & Muzik"
- Tribe.net
For
the first time since
the dawn of the nuclear
age, scientists came
up with an "end
of the world" scenario in the 1980s that
had nothing to do
with the U.S. or
Soviets pressing
a button. The doomsday delivery method, they feared, was overpopulation.
Twenty years later, symptoms of overpopulation's strain on the system are headline
news: thinning ozone,
global warming, overfishing,
water shortages,
peak oil. . .
Reminding us of overpopulation's underreported root cause is first-time author
Edward C. Hartman.
Hartman began writing
his self-published
book, The
Population Fix: Breaking
America's Addiction to Population Growth, in 1996-the
year he became a
grandfather.
Detached from the left-
or right-wing agenda
(and neither pro- nor
anti-immigration) Hartman
examines overpopulation
purely from the viewpoint
of an environmentalist,
focusing on its ill
effects on California,
the most populous state.
He argues that having
more than (ed.
an average of) 2.1 children (the
zero-growth replacement
rate) does no one, including
Mother Nature, any favors-except
to benefit the industries
that are addicted to
and promote population
growth politically, including
builders and developers,
mass media companies,
and food processors.
--Todd Spencer, Editor in Chief,
Common Ground Magazine, February 2007
Every
generation of readers
is benefitted with
a lesson on population
dynamics. Preferably,
the lesson will be
neatly packaged in
plain English.
This
book offers information
on population dynamics
in an engaging style.
There are no intimidating
charts, no convoluted
equations, and no
undefined terms.
Just straight talk on how fertility
and immigration multiplies
the numbers. The
author, Edward C.
Hartman, also examines
the underlying root
causes of the ongoing
population explosion
in the United States.
If you have been
following the literature on the population/ immigration movement
for many years, this book will offer a refreshing approach.
The Population Fix might be just the right form of relief to
send a friend or family member on the road to recovery.
The
Population Fix introduces the reader to carrying capacity
issues. It enables the reader to instinctively correlate highway
gridlock, polluted waters, and urban sprawl with population
pressures. The author maintains a keen gaze on the uninitiated
in this work.
Hartman's
leading qualification in writing this book is his immodest
status as a grandfather in California. Twenty-eight years in
the telecommunications industry and in the financial services
business provide a world of experience from which to draw wisdom.
Life has exposed Hartman to the symptoms of population growth.
The book explains a coherent and accessible series of population
concerns. They lead the reader to an unavoidable conclusion:
overpopulation threatens every facet of life on the planet.
In her Foreword, Diana Hull, president of Californians for
Population Stabilization (CAPS) asks: "Do Americans have
the right--and the
responsibility--to determine America's
ultimate population?" She enthusiastically
recommends this
book.
Hartman frames
thought-provoking
population-related
questions. For example,
will the next wave of illegal workers rush to fill the void
left by yesterday's amnestied illegal workers? In 1913, each
member of the House of Representatives spoke for 200,000 constituents.
Today, each speaks for
690,000. Where will
this end? Will the
addition of more workers today save Social Security
tomorrow? Or, will it only add the weight of more
retirees later?
Hartman hopes to build an army of "populationists." As the protagonist in Hartman's
work, the
"populationist" impulsively correlates population
pressures with overcrowded schools, highway
bonds, environmental hazards, and urban sprawl.
The "populationist" learns to identify population
growth addicts, such as food processors, bankers,
home builders, and cheap labor advocates. The
book draws a direct parallel with "other addictions."
This addiction includes a team of "enablers," such
as Congress, the mortgage industry, sanctuary
supporters, growth-oriented economists, the elites,
and even certain environmental organizations like
the Sierra Club.
Among the "victims" of population growth
addicts, Hartman includes the motorists on
congested highways, the employees competing for
lower wages, energy users, home buyers, students,
taxpayers, water users, and the wildlife lost to
sprawl.
In our enduring quest to determine an optimum
national population, Edward C. Hartman sets forth
a helpful frame of reference.
--John
F. Rohe, Attorney in
Petoskey, Michigan,
in The Social Contract,
Summer 2006.
This brisk, highly readable self-published book aims to persuade general readers that overpopulation underlies many of America's quality-of-life problems--and to motivate them to do something about it. Hartman, a financial planner and former telecommunications executive, writes with the breezy energy of a self-help author. Each chapter ends with questions and exercises, and there's a brief worksheet section at the back. He squarely confronts the--for some--uncomfortable reality that U.S. population growth results almost entirely from immigration and the higher fecundity of some immigrant groups. "[T]here is more to American life," he writes, "than simply making more Americans" (p. 31). He urges would-be population activists to begin by answering for themselves the question, "How many Americans should there be?" Though specialists may find its tone too popular, The Population Fix is just the ticket to get general readers thinking about the too-long-neglected issue of domestic overpopulation.
--Tom
Flynn, Editor, free
inquiry, August/September 2006, published by the
Council for Secular
Humanism
Edward
C. Hartman has given a lot of thought to the issue of how population
size affects our future and where we are now heading because of
the absence in our country of any focus on the effect of population
size on the conditions under which future generations will live.
His concern led him to write a primer to educate the American
people about the issue. The
Population Fix:
Breaking America’s
Addiction to
Population Growth is a must read for everyone who
cares about the national inheritance now being shaped for future
generations.
Hartman’s humorous style makes his analysis of the issues and the interests involved in the population equation an easy read while at the same time assuring the reader understands that not everyone will agree with him or come to the same conclusions about what population target may be optimal. We are challenged to think as “populationists,” which means we must start reinterpreting concerns about our growing resource shortages and impacts on the environment as evidence of our failure to recognize and deal with symptoms of overpopulation. Hartman’s
scope is global,
but he insists
that is no reason
to fail to address
the need to work
for an optimal,
stable population
for our country.
Tightly drawn
chapters deal
with symptoms
of addiction
to population
growth, who are
the addicts,
the victims,
the producers,
pushers and enablers
of population
growth, and the
meaning of rehabilitation,
treatment, withdrawal,
and cure in the
context of achieving
a sustainable
population. Even
those who already
consider themselves “populationists” will
find this book
a valuable source
of insight and
information.
The author has accompanied his educational efforts with the establishment of a website (www.ThePopulationFix.com) where you can order the book and explore the issue further. Or, for those not on the internet, you can place an order at 800-852-4890.
--Jack
Martin, Special Projects Director, FAIR, Immigration Report--Online Edition,
July/August 2006
"If
you are still sitting on the fence, the
Population Fix will
help you find your way through difficult intellectual territory. But
the author wants your participation in finding needed solutions." (From
Foreword by Diana Hull, Ph.D.)
Ed Hartman, CUSP Partner Extraordinaire, has given much thought to
how best to reach out to the great numbers of Americans who,
unfortunately for America, don't "get it".
You'll be delighted with his website,
where you'll see his techniques.
Now he has a book you can use to convince others, using his approach.
The book is "The Population Fix - Breaking America's Addiction To
Population Growth", Edward C. Hartman.
Ed started on it in 1996, the year that the Sierra Club let us down
with the announcement that, we activists could "take no position on
immigration levels or policies" while still advocating stabilization
(later reduction) of U.S. population.
The book may well be what you want on your shelf to be ready to loan
to someone "still sitting on the fence."
--Alan
Kuper, Ph.D., President, CUSP - Comprehensive (approach to) U.S. Sustainable
Population, in May, 2006 email to CUSP Partners and Friends.
I approached The Population Fix expecting
a dry dissertation. Nothing of the sort!
This was a fast read.
It addresses immigration--legal and illegal--but also, more broadly,
the effects of rampant population growth upon Americans' quality of
life. The upbeat style and hopeful countenance of the author keep the
reader energized. I recommend this book to any American who cares about
America’s values, America’s
future, and the lives
of future Americans.
--Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies
The Population Fix asks: How many Americans are enough?
That’s the question every American should ask. This book
paints the picture
clearly for us; this
is what America looks and feels like as we approach one billion
residents. One billion! The author methodically pleads for
each victim of runaway growth: The working commuter, the family
struggling to find affordable housing, the unemployed engineer,
the migrant living without protection or dignity,
the disappearing
farmland and the threatened wildlife. The Population Fix carefully
draws out the human
story behind our damaging immigration, tax, and legal policies
and structures and begs the questions: “Why have we ignored this for the past two decades?” and “What
can we do now?”
--Richard
D. Lamm, Co-Director
of the Center for Public
Policy & Contemporary
Issues at the University
of Denver
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