Population growth and environmental quality in California: An american laboratory

Rapid population growth, industrial and military activity, agriculture, and motor vehicles have had severe, quantifiable adverse impact on California's environment and social fabric. Cumulative impact of ground and surface water contamination will take decades to remedy at costs that may prove politically unbearable. The state's educational and welfare systems are approaching insolvency, due to factors associated with population growth, largely fueled by immigration. Increasingly severe restrictions on motor vehicles will be necessary to remediate degraded air, while number of vehicles will double before 2020.The cumulative impact of these processes may prove a severe test to consensus-based American representative government.