Housing crisis or overpopulation?
In the Denver area, developers and the development-fond media tout that we are having a "housing crisis" as if our housing has disappeared over the years.
Nothing could be further from the truth, housing has sprawled skyward and outward in most of the big cities around our country – especially in Denver. We do not have a “housing crisis” – we have an “overpopulation crisis.”
The city has experienced rapid growth over the past years: Denver gained more than 50,000 new households from 2010-2021, an increase of 22 percent. In 2022 alone, the metro area had a glut of newly filed permits: 13,368 for new apartments and 10,104 for new single-family homes, according to a new report from Apartment List. Apartment buildings are being erected everywhere. Small, historic homes, buildings, landscaping and trees are disappearing under acres of concrete and buildings. Denver does not have a "housing crisis" - we have an overpopulation problem. As more and more people move here, and as more children of people who live here grow up and desire housing of their own, the more the pricing and competiveness of housing increases due to the immense increase in demand. The reason that housing has become so expensive is simply because we are overpopulating our city. And we're not just doing this here in Denver, more than a million units are under construction nationwide to accomodate our unchecked population growth.
Rather than think that we can accomodate our non-stop population growth by sprawling and erecting more and more housing, we should be considering that the earth is not growing. Our wild places are disappearing. Food scarcity is becoming more of an issue due to climate change and storms that ruin crops – as well as commercialized abuse of our soils, and overfishing of our oceans. Our health has been getting worse as our air, water and food is polluted with pesticides and toxic chemicals as they are used for commercial production to support and feed the ever-growing masses. Our human population is simply outgrowing this planet, causing human and wildlife suffering on a global scale. Just because you erect a hundred skyrises each with 1,000 housing units, doesn't mean that we will have enough food, water, energy, resources and infrastructure to support the people added. We seriously need to think about slowing this population bomb down. While perhaps less people percentage-wise are having children, there are way more people – and our population is still growing at an unsustainable rate.
Overpopulation occurs when the human population rises to an extent exceeding the carrying capacity of the ecological setting. This is happening whether we like it or not. We have 8 billion+ people on the planet currently, and that number is not expected to decline.
Earth has finite resources but infinite human population growth. Overpopulation denialists do not understand this simple concept. Our population is not decreasing, just look at these chart:
Human Population Growth Chart from populationmatters.org/the-facts/
Like many other cities, Denver has grown endlessly everywhere far and wide – you'll see cranes and dumpsters everywhere you look while they raze well-built historic buildings to erect ugly cheap housing skyrises that are destined to fall apart and become eye-sores and liabilities over the years:
Leading biologist tells Scott Pelley humans would need “five more Earths” to maintain our current way of life. Where is the affordable housing for wildlife? When are we going to realize that human population's ever-increasing numbers are outgrowing our planet? Watch this 60 Minutes episode on overpopulation:
It is good to note that many younger people around the world are realizing that we can't sustain this growth and they are deciding not to have children. This is the best environmental choice each of us can make, as it may not solve our current overpopulation problems, it will at least keep it from getting even worse. This CNN Opinion intern's article is a sad but truthful read:
“If temperatures weren’t rising, I’d choose the name “Athena” for a girl. If the rivers were safe, I’d choose “William” for a boy. If I could breathe clean air on my morning commute, I’d paint the nursery a warm yellow. If I could see hope for a sustainable future on this planet, I wouldn’t be spending time mourning the children I’ll probably never have.
... Under today’s environmental and political climate, I find it is better to regret not having children than regret having them.”