Breaking the population-environment taboo at EarthX

Last month, we did our small part to break what David Attenborough calls the “bizarre taboo” that prevents an open discussion about the connection between population size and the environment from taking place. Obviously, the number of people in any given space has an impact on the environment of that space. When the first Earth Day took place several decades ago, this wasn’t just accepted, it was at the very core of the movement. But we don’t talk about it much any more.
EarthX in Dallas is a great place to break the taboo because Texas loses 20,000 acres of open space every two months largely because Texas adds another 8,500 people every week. Texas is a big place but most of the population growth occurs in the urban triangle between Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. Like most cities throughout human civilization, these three Texas towns are developed on or near the richest natural resources that the Lone Star State has to offer. That so many people from within the state, the country and around the world are moving to the urban triangle is a testament to what Texas is doing right. But that growth and development have consequences as natural resources and habitat areas are broken up or developed over completely. There are tradeoffs.