300,000,000 Strong

According to the Census Bureau, sometime tomorrow morning a baby will be born and the United States will have 300 million people. Pretty hefty amount. After China and India, I believe we are the most populous country, but a wikipedia search would verify that.

What does this mean for our country? Good or bad? And what about our future? Huge questions, which no doubt won't be answered until the time comes. These are the same questions that have been asked since day one, so many years ago.

We can't really predict what all this will mean. Chances are the numbers will continue to grow steadily, as the children of the baby boomers have children, and the flood of immigrants will have children and their children will have children. No doubt we might see more high rises in cities, and more buildings/apt buildings in some of the smaller cities/towns as well. This, I believe, is some ways down the road.

The key issue with this information is energy conservation and protection of the environment. More people will equal more of a strain on the environment. We need to protect and clean our waters and air harder than we have ever before. This includes cleaner energy resources such as solar power and windmills. Homes with their own solar panels should be common place today, as it is in many places throughout Greece (and Europe, I'm sure). Don't get me started on cars. Something must be done and faster. Sure, it takes time, but cars have largely remained the same since the 70's...only recently have things changed. And more change and greater change is needed. Otherwise, greater and greater populations will only mean more and more of a strain on the environment. You don't want to see the result of that.