National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: 300 Million Americans Will Take Great Environmental Toll, Report Warns


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Yailin Melissa Turcios lies in the arms of her mother, Rosa Turcios, 20 minutes after she was born on October 16, 2006, in Florida City, Florida.

This week the population of the United States will reach 300 million people, according to official figures, a demographic milestone with grave environmental ramifications. A new report paints a troubling picture of the United States as an expanding nation of "super-sized resource appetites" making disproportionate claims on the planet's resources.

Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images