Growth as Our Narrative is a Superstition, and It’s Bad for US.
The Britannica Dictionary defines a superstition as “a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck.” Our faith in growth as progress toward a better world is delusional on that level. It is pure superstition to believe that we can keep adding to our population and believe that life will be better for all. If one further defines superstition as a steadfast belief which causes unintended or intended suffering, then the addiction to a pattern of endless growth in a limited place certainly qualifies.
Wild animals have a superpower, but it is in the way they add diversity, beauty, and function to the natural world. Still here in 2022, with all we know about their fallacies, superstitions continue to harm our most amazing and rare species. It is estimated that 37 million seahorses end up being sold illegally due to the superstition in much of Asia that these remarkable and unusual fish promote virility and are a good luck symbol. In India superstition fuels the annual killing of more than 17,000 owls. The monitor lizard experiences the same precarious fate because of superstitions attached to its ability to help a woman conceive.
From Shark finning to the harvesting of Pangolins I could unfortunately go on and on about how these nearly extinct species are still being killed for the superpowers they are believed to have but do not possess. https://wildhub.community/posts/how-myths-and-superstitions-are-fueling-illegal-wildlife-trade-and-driving-wildlife-to-extinction?channel_id=capacity-development
The worship of growth is a prolific superstition embraced by nearly all cities, counties and countries wishing to attract development dollars to spruce up their decaying infrastructure with new high-rises and shopping malls.
We know that conservation has a better pay off on a community level. According to the Trust for Public Land https://www.tpl.org/how-we-work/fund/conservation-economics $4 are returned to a community for every $10 conservation dollar investment. Stopping development creates a reason for staying in a place while developing creates a reason to leave. People want to attract development but then their overcrowded clogged cities create a need to escape because humans do not thrive in crowded places. On the contrary they become frustrated and even mentally ill. The density we promote with our growth superstition leads to more noise, more smells, more disarray, more pollution, and more confusion. (https://www.urbandesignmentalhealth.com/how-the-city-affects-mental-health.html)
New developments should beg the questions; where will the water come from? How will the traffic be impacted? How will crime rates be affected? How will the next virus spread through them? How many taxes will be levied to pay for the services now required? Where will the new jobs come from and who will become disenfranchised because of a new supply of workers? In the US, upward mobility framed in the Declaration of Independence, becomes increasingly impossible with a growing population. We just need to look at the countries with higher populations and see that there will be more poverty, water scarcity, traffic, road rage and crime. Taxes will be higher while services will not be completely covered by the monies raised. Flipping growth on its head is an act of compassion, not hatred.
Research supports raising the alarm call about growth, but those who cling to its superstitions are deaf to the wisdom in its warnings. The latest sprawl studies reveal the sobering news that nearly 18,000 square miles (11.4 million acres) have been gobbled up by development between 2002 and 2017 alone. A deeper dive into the data reveals that 2/3 of this is related to population growth. An even deeper parsing of the data reveals that most of our growth in the US is now driven by immigration. (https://www.numbersusa.com/resource-article/vanishing-open-spaces-national-study)
Upwards of 160 million would like to move here from around the world for various reasons, mostly for opportunities for a better life. There is no way to keep that door open and expect that our country won’t collapse under the weight of all those additional citizens. As Senator Gaylord Nelson said long ago, “It’s phony to say I’m for the environment but not for limiting immigration.” That is especially true today as we continue to press for more leniency when more restrictions are required.
We don’t need any more proof that adding approximately one million more people a year mostly due to legal immigration and untold millions more due to illegal immigration will create more suffering, we just need to look out the window, and down our blocks to see that growth is choking us and erasing opportunities. We need to see that we can have a less populated US without economic blowback, disparaging rhetoric, or despicable policies.
To let go of growth as our as yet unexamined superstition is a first step. If we don’t, it will be a lot like claiming we love the oceans while dining on shark fin soup.