On this episode of Arizona Edition.
As the population of Colorado doubled between 1982 and 2017 the state lost over 12 hundred square miles of rural open space.
The majority of that land, 86 percent, was developed to handle the additional consumption caused by Colorado having 2.5 million more people.
The remaining 14 percent was used to build their homes, places of work, places for them to shop, go to church, park, and more.
Population increase is a direct contributor to water overuse in the West, but public policy continues to push the idea of growth as a measure of economic and political power.
Our guest is Leon Kolankiewicz. He is scientific director for Numbers USA and Vice-President of Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization (SEPS).
Kolankiewicz is also the co-author a new study of sprawl in Colorado. A study that highlights what is lost when population is gained.
He authored a similar report for Arizona last year in a study that determined the state lost 1,744 square miles (1.1 million acres) of natural habitat and farmland to buildings, pavement, gravel and other surfaces to support a population that grew by 4.2 million people between 1982 and 2017.