Is living with the dead coming toAmerica?

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 4:18PM

This is one of the largestand nicest mausoleums with a television, fan, privacy,and enough room for the entire family. It is located in the 135-acre North Manila Cemetary, the largest public burial ground in the Philippines and currently occupied by both the dead and about fifty thousand living residents. Located within the cemetary are also grocery stores, schools, basketball hoops, and even fast-food stalls although there is no running water orplumbing. Since 1960 thepopulation in the Phillippines has tripled to 89 million with one in three unemployed and27 million who subsist on a dollar or less a day. Each yearthousandsflock to Manila for work and a place to live where they join its 14 million homeless inhabitants, many of which are squatters on the city's main garbage dump. Never happen in America you say? OK, I concede that it will nothappen in my few remaining years, butabsent major changes, most of which are still avoidable, it is inevitably coming to your city in America. Consider the following contributing factors andthenadd your thoughts. 1. The population of the United States is expected to reach 450 million by 2050 - an increase of almost 50 percent. The pattern of settlement for these new residents is predicted to be the most built-out states that includeArizona, Texas, Florida and California, located in regions that don't have fresh water, don't have carrying capacity, and can't feed themselves. In a ranking of liveable cities, The Economist has already ranked Phoenix behind Nairobi, Algiers and Phnomh Pahn. 2. Migration from Mexico to the United States has accelerated to the point where about 9 percent of the population born in Mexico is now living in the U.S. with a net migration of roughly 400,000 per year. 3. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that by 2080 there will be up to 3.2 billion people experiencing water scarcity, up to 600 million absent adequate food and up to 7 million displaced by coastal flooding. The report estimates that between now and 2050, due to global climate change-related phenomena such asdesertification and droughts, a total of 1 billion people will be displaced- that is one in every seven people on Earth today! 4. There are many more reasons - just Google "climate change mass migration" and you will find 194,000 hits. There are some events that will drivehuman migrationunrelated to climate change such asconflicts and natural disasters, however, the implicatons ofclimate change are the most urgentthreats facing the globe. Still not taking the consequences of global warming seriously? Drop by the graveyard tomorrow tofind this mausoleum(below),spend five pesos to sing karaoke, and then call me the next morning and tell me we don't need to urgently worktogether in organizations such as the Institute of Green Professionals to make a difference to our communities, cities, nation and the world.