Why We Need Alternatives

Why do we need alternatives to growth? Simply, current rates of population and consumption growth are unsustainable.

Oregon's population has doubled in the last 40 years and is projected to double in the next 40 years.

If we do nothing, it's projected that in the next fifty years in the Willamette Valley alone:

• 300,000 acres of farmland will be lost to development;
• 50,000 acres of forestland will be lost to development;
• 106,000 acres will be added to urban growth boundaries (sprawl)
• Traffic will get 80% worse.

The time to act is now, before it's too late.

More on Population Growth

More on Consumption

More on the Effects of Growth

Polling Data (What People are Saying About Growth)

Think About It!

"In many instances, gains made in arresting environmental pollution and degradation have recently been eroded by choices related to consumption increases and population growth."
 - North America's Environment: A Thirty-Year State of the Environment and Policy Retrospective, United Nations. 2002.

World Scientists' Warming to Humanity

"The Earth is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the Earth's limits... Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth..."