Between 1970 and 2020, the population of the United States grew by 62 percent, rising from roughly 205 million to 332 million people. Colcom Foundation treats that figure as central to its environmental argument, pairing it with emissions data the foundation says tells a more complicated story than efficiency gains alone.

Efficiency Gains, Offset by Growth

During that same fifty year stretch, per capita carbon emissions in the United States fell by 35 percent. Yet total national emissions still climbed 15 percent, a gap Colcom Foundation attributes directly to population growth outpacing efficiency improvements. The foundation calls this pattern a recurring theme across several environmental indicators, including urban sprawl, land conversion, and biocapacity use.

Colcom Foundation cites a 2022 analysis, “From Sea to Sprawling Sea,” which found that over 31,000 square miles of American land were converted to buildings and paved surfaces between 2000 and 2020. The same research linked faster population growth in specific regions to higher rates of habitat loss compared with areas where population stayed flat or declined.

What the Foundation Says This Means

Colcom Foundation argues that these figures complicate a common assumption in environmental circles, namely that cleaner technology and reduced consumption alone can offset a growing population’s total footprint. The foundation says its grantmaking reflects that skepticism, funding research and public education that treats population size as a factor worth measuring rather than setting aside.

The foundation does not claim that efficiency and consumption changes are unimportant. Colcom Foundation instead frames population data as a missing piece that, paired with the other two, gives a fuller accounting of how the country’s environmental footprint has actually moved over half a century of growth and change.

Officials at the foundation add that these numbers are meant to inform planning rather than settle debates on their own. Colcom Foundation continues to fund research tracking how population, consumption, and technology interact across different regions of the country, arguing that any one figure taken alone tells an incomplete story about where the nation’s footprint is headed next. Refer to this article to learn more.

Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://www.colcomfdn.org/