TAKE ACTION NOW!
Enter Your Zip Code.

 

CAPS Issues

---

October 2012
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
In the 1830s, the unique fauna of the isolated and remote Galápagos Islands inspired the imagination of a 26-year old gentleman naturalist named Charles Darwin. The frequently seasick Darwin was participating on a five-year voyage of exploration and discovery aboard the survey ship HMS Beagle.
More... »

April 2012
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
In fact, of course, not a single human being actually lives permanently in or atop the oceans, submarine or no. If one doesn’t count the tens of thousands of sailors, crews and passengers transiting the seas at any one moment, the human population density of the vast oceans per se is zero persons per square mile.
More... »

April 2012
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
Zoologists refer to a select few species of wild creatures as “charismatic.” That is, they possess one or more characteristics we humans find immensely admirable or attractive—for example, their size, cuteness, ferocity, swiftness, intelligence, regality or agility—such that they attract a wide and devoted following.

Think polar bears, pandas, elephants, koalas, chimpanzees, whales, dolphins, bald eagles.
More... »

Thursday, March 15th 2012
Cassandra's Heirs -- Can We Improve on Her Fate?  More... »

July 2011
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 1990 to 2000, an already bloated U.S. population grew by nearly 33 million (from 248 to 281 million), more than any decade since the Bureau began keeping track in 1790, when there were only 4 million Americans in total. Thus, in a mere 10 years, eight times as many people were added as there were altogether in our country some two centuries earlier, in a stark demonstration of the stunning power of what is known as compound, exponential, or geometric growth.
More... »

June 2011
By Joe Guzzardi, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
For California to succeed in the 21st century, the state will need a well-educated populace. The foundation for sound learning begins in the K-12 public school system which, sadly, for nearly 40 years, has been in a deep and continuous decline.
More... »

By Ric Oberlink, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
September 2010
In 1970, as America celebrated the first Earth Day, the population in California was under 20 million. Since then it has grown steadily and inexorably, and today it has doubled to over 39 million. The California Department of Finance projects that it will exceed 54 million by 2040, an increase from today’s level equivalent to the entire populations of Nicaragua, Norway, and New Zealand. Population density in the state already exceeds that of Europe, and by mid-century will be higher than China’s. This huge increase in the human population has had a severe impact on California’s natural environment and a deleterious effect on the state’s infrastructure, budget, economy, and schools. Further declines seem inevitable unless we take steps to reduce this continuing increase.
More... »

Fall 2010
By Maria Fotopoulos, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
"At the root of any modern nation-state lies the belief that because a given population shares, or can be made to share, certain identifiable characteristics—religion, language, shared history, and so on—it merits an independent existence," wrote historian James L. Gelvin.
More... »

Fall 2009
By Mark Cromer
There is something sublimely grand about the term itself, evoking the notion that the most fundamental civic right an American can possess—citizenship—through which access to virtually all other constitutionally enshrined rights and protections pass, is bestowed to all who are blessed enough to take their first gasp of earthly air on American soil. It is held among our people’s core beliefs as something that is intrinsically American, an iconic reflection of the generous character of the American spirit that delivers on the Statue of Liberty’s plea to send her those huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
More... »

Fall 2008
By Maria Fotopolous
Farm workers on the agricultural lands from California to Florida, housekeepers in homes and hotels and fast food workers in chains throughout the country may be the most familiar face of America’s illegal aliens, but there’s another less noticeable immigrant coming into the United States at the other end of the economic spectrum under a legal program that is subject to abuse and is the driver of even more unsustainable population growth.
More... »