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CCN's 5 Point Program

National Revitalization

Population Stabilization

Immigration Reduction

Economic Sustainability

Resource Conservation

 

WHAT IS CARRYING CAPACITY?

A common fallacy is to equate existing and seemingly open or "unused" spaces with the kind of resources and ecologically productive land needed to support human life under modern conditions. In fact, the criterion for determining whether a region is overpopulated is not land area, but carrying capacity.

Carrying capacity refers to the number of individuals who can be supported in a given area within natural resource limits, and without degrading the natural social, cultural and economic environment for present and future generations. The carrying capacity for any given area is not fixed. It can be altered by improved technology, but mostly it is changed for the worse by pressures which accompany a population increase. As the environment is degraded, carrying capacity actually shrinks, leaving the environment no longer able to support even the number of people who could formerly have lived in the area on a sustainable basis. No population can live beyond the environment's carrying capacity for very long.

The average American's "ecological footprint" (the demands an individual endowed with average amounts of resources, ie, land, water, food, fiber, waste assimilation and disposal, etc. puts on the environment) is about 12 acres, an area far greater than that taken up by one's residence and place of school or work and other places where he or she is.

We must think in terms of "carrying capacity" not land area. The effects of unfettered population growth drastically reduce the carrying capacity in the United States.

CARRYING CAPACITY NETWORK

Real Solutions for America's Problems

Welcome to the CCN Home Page! CCN is a national non-profit advocacy group working to secure the sustainable future of the United States. Here you'll find articles by some of the best contemporary thinkers in the fields of population stabilization, national revitalization, economic sustainabilty and resource conservation. Use our site to lobby your leaders in Congress, or join a live conversation in our chat room. Get the facts about the detrimental effects of mass-immigration, and why we need an immigration moratorium now more than ever. And don't forget to sign on to our National Alert subscription email service, an indispensable resource for Americans who care enough to act.

April 2009

New CCN Initiative:

ABOLISH THE FED!
U.S. TREASURY INSTEAD!

Why is Carrying Capacity Network asking you to support its new 'Abolish the Fed' front-line Initiative? 

Here's why: We have asked ourselves why 35 years of work to stop mass immigration and create a Sustainable USA for the long-term has thus far been unsuccessful. A Strategic Cause is that Immigration 'Reform' Groups have not united to push a zero-net-immigration Moratorium -- the only policy which can possibly succeed in reducing mass immigration. 

Here, however, we focus on a Fundamental Cause. The effort to establish a sustainable population and economy have failed thus far because we are fighting the ideology of limitless growth. This ideology is essential to the profitability of the privately owned for-profit financial giant: The Federal Reserve. 

[Read More]

CCN has received an almost uniformly positive response to its "Abolish the Fed; U.S. Treasury Instead! Initiative (see above).  Thus we are pleased to share with you one thoughtful response by reprinting the following Guest Editorial:

A GUEST EDITORIAL

Much of the current financial crisis can be attributed to the failure of the central banking system in the United States, known as the Federal Reserve. It should be noted that the Federal Reserve is neither a federal institution, nor a reserve of any kind. It is a small consortium of very large, privately-owned, for-profit banks that have been authorized by Congress to create money out of thin air. The government allows the membership of this small group of owners to remain secret. In a financial deal that boggles the mind, the U.S. Congress, rather than using the U.S. Treasury to create new funds at no cost, allows the Fed to create those funds, which the Fed then loans back to the government, with interest. In addition to controlling the supply of money to the government and other banks, the Fed also controls the interest rates at which it is lent. This information is confirmed by Chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernake in a rare interview on 60 Minutes (of particular interest is the statement at 8:00 of the video).

[Read More]

What's New at CCN

 

 

CCN is a group of activists working to promote and conserve what's right with America and to eliminate what's wrong with America. Most of America's main problems - from traffic, to classroom crowding, to pollution, depletion, welfare dependency, increasing taxes, and cultural fragmentation, have deep roots in our unsustainable population growth. Because of that, CCN focuses on stabilizing our population. We are even willing to face the awkward demographic fact that immigration is the cause of most of our recent growth (at current rates, immigration will cause about 90% of our growth as we double in the next 60 years or so).

CCN simply wants to conserve the best of America - before it's developed, overrun, consumed, and polluted by runaway population growth. It's not too late, and we hope that you will join us in this effort.

Note: CCN is anti-mass immigration but NOT anti-immigrant. At NETWORK , we understand that immigration is a sensitive issue. While we hope to encourage debate on this topic and challenge the status quo, it is important to note that our battle is being waged for the future of the United States of America-- for preservation of quality of life, respect for law, national security and a sustainable population size and level of resource use.

These goals do not threaten immigrants. Rather, established immigrants are quick to see that continuing, explosive growth in population size will recreate conditions in the United States that are similar to conditions in their countries of origin and from which they fled. No prejudice nor lack of compassion guides us. Rather, we desire a sustainable future for all. We push for the enactment of sensible policies and we demand enforcement of existing US law.

At NETWORK we work as much for the well being of our immigrant Americans as that of native-born citizens. We were the founding sponsor of the Diversity Coalition for an Immigration Moratorium in order to help achieve a sensible immigration policy. We encourage everyone who cares about the future of America to join us.

The CCN Editorial Policy:

While Carrying Capacity Network endeavors to make sure that all materials contained in our publications are accurate, CCN is not responsible for the reliability of information submitted for publication. CCN does not sanction or endorse any views, policies, or activities of groups or individuals, including members of CCN, except as may be explicitly indicated. CCN will assume that when information is submitted, permission is thereby granted to edit and provide context before dissemination. Due to the volume of submissions, CCN cannot guarantee that any particular item will be included or that it will be included in its entirety. CCN will, however, always endeavor to properly credit sources.

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The content of this website--graphics, text and other elements--is ©2001 by Carrying Capacity Network, and may not be reprinted or retransmitted in whole or in part without the expressed written consent of the publisher.

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National Board of Advisors

Albert A. Bartlett
Nicolaas Bloembergen
William Catton, Jr.
Marisa Hsia Chang
Robert Costanza
Herman E. Daly
Brock Evans
William Frey
Robert Kaufmann
Edith V. Lavin
Thomas E. Lovejoy
L. Hunter Lovins
Daniel Luten
Dan Morris
Frank L. Morris, Sr.
Gaylord Nelson
Nancy Sue Pearlman
Marcia Pimentel
William E. Rees
Charles L. Remington
Claudine Schneider
Alan Tonelson
Edgar Wayburn
Walter Youngquist