When the first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, its organizers identified two interlocking causes of environmental harm: per capita consumption and population size. The decades that followed brought real progress on the first problem. The second was largely set aside. Colcom Foundation’s philanthropic mission is grounded in the conviction that this omission has cost the environmental movement dearly.
The evidence the foundation cites is concrete. Between 1970 and 2021, U.S. per capita CO2 emissions fell from 21.33 metric tons to 14.04 a 35 percent reduction. At the same time, the American population grew from 205 million to 332 million. The net result was a 15 percent rise in total CO2 output. Progress on efficiency was real; its environmental benefit was erased by growth in the number of people generating emissions.
A Pattern Across Metrics
The same dynamic appears across environmental measurements. In 1970, the U.S. was consuming 227 percent of its available biocapacity. By 2020, that figure stood at approximately 240 percent. Per capita biocapacity use had fallen by more than 20 percent yet total overshoot increased, entirely because of population growth.
Land conversion followed a similar arc. By 2020, developed surfaces in the U.S. covered an area the size of three states combined. Agricultural land accounted for more than half the country’s total land base. Wildlife habitat shrank in proportion, and with it, wildlife populations. North American bird numbers fell from ten billion in 1970 to seven billion by 2020, a loss of 2.9 billion.
Looking at the Decades Ahead
Colcom Foundation looks at projections for the coming decades and sees the stakes grow larger. Immigration is expected to account for 103 million in U.S. population growth by 2065 roughly the population of eight and a half Los Angeles metro areas. A larger population means a larger ecological footprint, more land consumed, and a harder road to meeting climate and conservation commitments.
The foundation’s position is that environmental sustainability requires honesty about population, not just consumption. Refer to this article to learn more.
Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/colcom-foundation,311479839/