Category: Population

Image by Stan Shebs, via Wikipedia.

Today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.

Martin Luther King, Jr., “The World House”

Recently I went to visit a friend whom I knew would be dying soon. She had failing health and failed eyesight. I arrived with two goals in mind, but left with a third.

Earlier this year I attended my 65th high school reunion. It was that long ago—2/3 of a century—that I pledged to work in the field of human overpopulation. I also had a realization in high school about myself: I don’t like and don’t understand politics. I appreciate the necessity for politics, but I vowed to remain unsullied by never running for office. That vow was broken only once—long ago when I ran for the Durango School Board. Fortunately, I lost.

Most of my professional work was at the beginning of life. I have enjoyed helping families bear healthy children, and helping them to avoid bearing children when that was their choice. However, I am ending my medical career at the other end of the lifespan, with Medical Aid In Dying (MAID).

Is this MAID work in response to my concern about overpopulation? No, it is not. It is in response to my own aging, and a desire to have some control over my own death. It is also a response to an image from my internship that I cannot get out of my mind.

Mrs. Jones was too young to be dying of cancer. She was in her late 40s, as I remember, but she looked to be much older. She had had breast cancer that had spread throughout her emaciated body. This was 1970 and doctors didn’t know much about the care of people with terminal disease. Mrs. Jones was in constant pain which was only partly controlled by periodic injections of morphine. We now have hospice care which can help keep people comfortable in the last chapters of their lives.

I have battled one potentially fatal illness—bladder cancer—and won. Who knows what the future holds for my health, and I would like to be able to have control over my own death if living becomes unbearable.

If you read the Herald’s beautiful editorial on July 20th, you already know about Salye Stein’s death. This editorial was written by her daughter, Ellen Stein, the Herald’s Opinion Editor.

Fortunately, there are many safeguards in the Colorado MAID law, which requires that a person fulfill several requirements before they can get medication for MAID. They must be likely to die of natural causes in the next 6 months. They must be mentally competent, and able to drink the medication. Two physicians are needed to certify these conditions; I was one of those who attested this for Salye. 

Many people get the MAID medication and keep it in their refrigerator, but never take it.

My official visit was a few weeks before her death. I returned a few days before the planned death for two reasons: to be certain that she realized that she could change her mind, if she wished, and to say good-bye to my friend. However, Salye reminded me of my responsibility to my values and my country, and I left her apartment with a third motivation.

Salye was distraught over the condition of democracy in the USA. She made me realize that I need to be more active politically to be a good citizen and to protect this country’s democracy. Since then I have taken several steps to do my civic duty.

©?Richard Grossman MD, 2026

“Instead of speaking of a shortage of supply we could just as truly say that there is a longage of demand.”

Biologist Garrett Hardin

Our rain and snow come from the sky, however much of the water gets up there by transpiration from plants and trees. So many people appreciate Colorado that they move here, causing the built space (housed, roads etc.) displaces fields and trees. Therefore, there is less water making it up to the sky to form clouds.

However, that’s probably a minor reason for the 25+ year drought affecting western North America. This dearth of water isn’t only the worst drought of this century; it is the worst drought in 1200 years! No wonder it is called a megadrought. Furthermore, it’s not just affecting southwestern Colorado, but much of western North America and has expanded to cover much of the US.

Yes, there are periodic climatic variations that cause dry years, then wet years. El niño/la niña is one such variation, but it has been overwhelmed by another factor—climate heating.

Climate chaos has already caused many weird weather patterns in southwest Colorado this year. First we had summer in March, then we experienced winter in April. However, one thing is constant—it has been dry. In early March of this year the snowpack was at historic lows. Then record high temperatures later that month melted much of the snow that remained. If you look west to the La Plata Mountains, their silver plate has been worn off.

How much of this drought is due to climate chaos? Scientists have estimated that about half is anthropogenic. An article published in 2020 found that 46% of the megadrought could be accounted for by climactic heating. It has become hotter since then, so perhaps more than half is due to anthropogenic heating. My understanding is that the other half is due to the normal variation in precipitation.

There is less water is coming from the sky and less  water on the surface—which is how a drought is usually defined. What about under the ground? There the water supply is hidden and more difficult to measure, of course. However, we know that some aquifers have been almost sucked dry. The Ogallala aquifer, for instance, has been tapped by so many wells for crop irrigation that in some places the water level has dropped 300 feet!

Satellite measurements have shown that the Earth’s surface has fallen many feet in areas such as southern Florida, largely because the underground water has been removed. Although we think of the Amazon as being the ultimate of wetness and high humidity, some trees are suffering from dryness, leading to overheating and their death. Amazonia has been called “the lungs of the Earth”, but if the drought worsens, those lungs may stop breathing.

The term “water crisis” has been used so often that readers are jaded. Furthermore, a “crisis” implies resolution is possible, but in some areas the drought is so severe that resolution seems impossible. Thus, a new term has been coined for these dire situations, “water bankruptcy”. It is defined as: “…human-water systems whose water use persistently exceeds hydrological carrying capacity [so] damages are irreparable….” Examples include parts of Mexico, Egypt and India.

Human activities have decreased precipitation, especially in the North American Southwest. In addition, excess numbers of people have exceeded the carrying capacity of fresh water supplies. One group of humanity is causing this drought by using fossil fuels, and another group of humanity is suffering from water bankruptcy. Fewer people would help with both problems.

© Richard Grossman MD, 2026