Growing Pains

Picture credit:  U.S. Department of Energy Genome Programs

Being basically claustrophobic,  this story quickly caught my eye.
This problem may only be in Florida for right now, but trust me,  it will be coming to a state near you,  eventually.
Our fragile Wildlife is being shoved, pushed and run out of town by a burgeoning population explosion here and our Ecosystems have been pushed to the brink of collapse.
This painful problem is growing exponentially with each new snow bird and retiree,  who decides not to go back from whence they came, but to stay on  in Paradise and put down new roots in the Sunshine State.
At this very moment,  Florida is about to overtake New York as the second most populous state in America, not a thing for which we should be particularly proud,  in my opinion.
Quite the contrary, this is terrifying news for wildlife defenders and protectors because we know what the translation of that about to be statistic means, animals are going to die.
With every trip that we make to one of the Coasts or down to the Keys, we are shocked by just how many new houses, Hotels, Restaurants and other towering buildings have popped up, since the last one.
To say that it is getting crowded here,  is a massive understatement.
All of these new residents are using up Florida’s water, and countless natural resources to the point of near depletion.
For years, Florida’s Ecosystems have taken some serious hits, but they simply cannot bend or yield much more.
Over crowding and overpopulation of any place, especially here where so many animals are already on either an Endangered or Threatened List and hanging on by a thread, leads to a myriad of evil for wild animals,  their Habitats and our Environment.
The Animals, Environment and  Ecosystems,  are all negatively impacted by too many, taking too much.
Many are thrilled by what will come here with the invading hordes, like more representation in Washington and endless blank checks, for those who wish to entice us for more and more buildable land and the like.
What they fail to comprehend is,  what it will do to the already exhausted  Ecosystems, wild things and plants that presently call Florida home.
Do we really need or want more people to move here?
No we do not, if we wish to sustain the unique natural beauty that Florida presently is.
What we really need here in Florida,  is a Population Cap or Master Plan,  that restricts overgrowth.
There was one in the town in California that I came here from.
Can we put a cap on an entire state?
If not, why not?
And if we just sit back and do nothing to stop this runaway train, we must all be prepared to watch as one by one, our  beautiful wild things here die from lack of sustainable living space.
Humans don’t do well when they are crowded,  why don’t we understand that animals are exactly the same.
Even lab rats turn on each other when they are overcrowded.
My fear is that these particular growing pains are going to prove fatal for Florida’s Wild everything.
 
You may wish to read more about this Issue here:
Florida’s  Population Growth Comes At Steep Cost To Wildlife
10 Species Our Population Explosion Will Likely Kill Off
The Human Population Explosion
Human Overpopulation