The Problem With New Development

By Meade Helman

We as a species have a problem and we call it growth or over-development. WE don’t really have any predators so the only way the population will be reduced is pestilence, war or invasion by aliens that think humans taste like chicken. By the way, overpopulation leads to pestilence and war. Most civilizations that died, died because they depleted their resources.

You don’t know what you’ve got ’til its gone.

When we blame growth, meaning development.  we aren’t looking deep enough. Engineers have a concept they call “root-cause analysis” . That means you look at the real cause not the symptoms. The problem is not that we waste our resources (we do by the way) it is that our population is growing in excess of what the world can support. That is a problem I wouldn’t want to address, I will leave it to people smarter than I am because it is a major emotion and even religious issue. BUT:

There is a lot we can do to stretch our resources, make less do more but it has to be a concerted effort on the part of our governments and planning bodies. All those new people need a place to live and we want them to live in a nice single family home on a sodded lot. Until we can figure out the population issue we need to realize that planning needs to look at more than just provid

ing houses. More people means more garbage, more sewerage, all those lawns mean lots more water, more roads, and more power. Planning needs to take all those factors into account. For example in BWG, the town is building houses as fast as they can with no thought to how much traffic the 400 can carry. No thought about what to do with the sewerage, no consideration given to the carrying capacity of Lake Simcoe, which is also where we get our water.

There also has to be consideration given to those who can’t afford the expensive “dream Home” or maybe don’t want one. Planning should plan for the whole community not just the folks that fit into a narrow definition.

• Those people are going to need to eat. Farmland is not just something to do with the land until you build houses. Planning should preserve farmland build up not out., local foods preserves precious resources for other purposes.
• We need to reduce garbage and waste. Reducing packaging or making it recyclable on the everyday things we buy would help things like plastic bottles of water.
• Planning should allow for local power generation. Right now we lose 40% of our power through transmission over long distance.
• Planning should work to improve transit. If transit is affordable comfortable and comfortable people will use it. Transit is less polluting AND Studies have shown that population that use transit tend to be healthier.  Health care, another necessary resource. If you don’t think reducing pollution is an issue look at pictures of Beijing, where you can’t go outside without a respirator mask.

So this is really a big job and won’t h

appen over night. So what can one person do right now to start making a difference?

• Walk or take transit whenever possible.
• Use washable containers for lunches and leftovers instead of plastic bags.
• Don’t buy water in plastic bottles. The stuff in the plastic bottles is tap water anyway.
• Dig up your lawn (or part of it) and put in a vegetable garden. Less water needed and less fertilizer run-off. And/Or put in a perennial flower garden. Prettier than a lawn and less work.
• Try to eat seasonal food. Less transportation pollution and more vitamins.
• Get involved. Know what your town and county are planning and have your say. Talk to your councilors, mayors, and staff.

The last thing is join AWARE and get involved in our activities.