Social distancing is difficult in a crowded world
The COVID- 19 pandemic has destroyed life as we know it. Millions have lost their loved ones, and tens of millions have lost their livelihoods. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions.
But there’s one silver lining — the shutdowns have stopped much of our planet- destroying activities. Pollution levels have plummeted. Traffic is almost nonexistent. My relatives in normally smog- choked Los Angeles can even see the mountains again.
Hopefully, Americans will reflect on the immense environmental harm caused by our previous way of life — and chart a more sustainable course for the future.
Much of our current pollution and sprawl results from rapid population growth. In 1920, the global human population stood at just under 2 billion. Today, it has ballooned to more than 7.5 billion. And if current growth rates continue, we’ll hit 9.8 billion people by 2050. The United States alone has added over 100 million people since 1980 and will add another 100 million by the end of this century, almost entirely from international migration.
To deal with this hockey- stick shaped growth curve, we’ve been cramming more and more people into cities. This crowding has myriad consequences, from the creation of urban “heat islands” that exacerbate climate change to the rapid spread of infectious diseases like COVID- 19.
Consider coronavirus’ suspected origins. The city of Wuhan, China, had all the ingredients for disease outbreak: It’s a transportation hub with high population density and a large number of so- called “wet markets” — where people sell live, wild animals for human consumption. Given these conditions, it was never a question of if, but when, a pandemic on the scale of COVID- 19 would occur.
And just as the virus spread rapidly through China’s urban areas, it has had an outsized impact on America’s cities. Just look at the situation in New York City, where coronavirus has infected more than 380,000 residents and killed more than 23,000. These sobering numbers are undoubtedly correlated with the city’s density: New York has a whopping 28,000 residents per square mile. As Stanford epidemiologist Dr. Steven Goodman put it, “Density is really an enemy in a situation like this.”
Density isn’t just a Big Apple problem, either. Together, California and Florida have the same population that the whole country had in 1893, when Samuel Ward wrote “America the Beautiful.” It was likely easy to relax under “spacious skies” and gaze on unsullied “purple mountain majesties” in a nation of 63 million people. It’s far tougher in today’s dirtier, far more densely packed country of 330 million.
Just like every other American, I hate living in a COVID- 19- plagued world. I have an elderly father, and I constantly worry about his health. Everything that was once fun, like shopping at the local co- op or taking a walk, makes me feel like an extra in a zombie movie.
But with the coronavirus finally bringing the problems caused by rapid growth into stark relief, I hope we’ll turn this tragedy into an opportunity. From climate change and war to water shortages and food scarcity, so many issues are bringing us to the brink of collapse. And endless growth will solve none of them.
Simply put, we can’t afford to continue the same policies — from zoning codes that encourage sprawl, to immigration laws that bring in almost 2 million new residents each year — that have despoiled our environment and led us into this mess.
It’s time to ask ourselves what kind of America, and world, we want to live in — and then demand changes from our political leaders.