Population

Regarding a recent Sun op-ed page, it's rare to see two commentaries side by side that perfectly cancel each other out. In one, John Seager notes that the Earth's population is growing at a rate of 80 million people a year ("An Unhappy World Population Day," July 11). In the other, Thomas F. Schaller exhorts us to welcome immigrants even when their "economic pressure forces those of us already here to work harder" ("Hostility toward recent immigrants a long U.S. tradition," July 11). It might occur to Mr. Schaller that today jobs are a precious commodity, and it's only natural to want them protected.

The National Aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Program staff is inviting the public to go to the beach with them and look for dolphins. On Friday, July 20, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., the National Aquarium will conduct its annual effort to collect information on the number of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. This species - which can also be found in the Baltimore aquarium - uses Maryland waters for migration, feeding and summertime breeding. The event, which has been held since 1997, encourages volunteers to collect data that helps provide a picture of the animals' populations and reproductive rates.

Wednesday is World Population Day! Why does that matter? Unlike Slurpee Day - also Wednesday - or National Hot Dog Day (July 21), population growth has a direct effect on you, your children, your future and the health of our planet. Let's put population growth into terms any Orioles fan can understand. Every hour, the world population increases by about 9,100 people. At that rate, it would only take about five hours to fill up Camden Yards. It would be loud. It would be crowded. A lot of Slurpees and hot dogs would be needed to feed everyone.

Public safety workers toiled in record-breaking heat in Baltimore and around the region Saturday to help vulnerable residents regroup as Maryland attempted to return to normal life after a devastating series of weather events. Baltimore's high temperature was 104 degrees Saturday — the highest on record for the date — and the state confirmed that its 10th heat-related death of the season had taken place a day earlier. Streets were empty, and most of those who lost electricity in a powerful storm last weekend were back online.

Last week's report that Baltimore's population continues to shrink was not good news but hardly surprising, given the city's history. The drop was modest compared to the residential losses Baltimore has experienced in years past, but more importantly, the U.S. Census statistics contained ample evidence of a potentially brighter future ahead. That's because many U.S. cities are on the rebound. The same Census figures that show Baltimore lost about 1,500 people in the year ending last July also revealed that more than half of the country's 51 largest metropolitan areas saw greater growth within their city limits than in their suburbs.

Few people, from politicians to commenters on Facebook, expressed surprise when The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday that the city's population has continued on a downward trajectory. Some did wonder, though, whether the minuscule number of people lost was worth reporting and how the U.S. Census Bureau arrived at its estimates. Baltimore's loss was teensy. Only 0.2 percent of Charm City's population - 1,500 people - departed in the 15-month period following the April 2010 Census, according to the Census Bureau's first city population estimates of the decade.

Baltimore lost about 1,500 people from April 2010 to July 2011, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Baltimore's population now hovers around 619,500, according to the estimates — which showed that the populations of Boston, Seattle and Denver all surpassed Baltimore's total during the 15-month period. Baltimore — the 10 t h-biggest U.S. city in terms of population in 1980 — now ranks 24 t h.

While I agree that chemicals and manure are major problems contributing to Chesapeake Bay pollution, there are two additional concerns that should be addressed. One is the pollution associated with power mowers, leaf blowers and edgers. Most or these gasoline engines have little or no pollution controls. The second is the increasing population in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. During my lifetime, the population in Maryland has more than tripled, and homes and highways continue to reduce the efficiency of trees in cleansing the environment.

Highlandtown's Eastern Avenue is emerging as the kind of Baltimore place where you rate the sour beef and dumplings in the same sentence as the peppery Peruvian rotisserie chicken with sides of yucca and plantain. It's a spot where the traditional Baltimore train garden at the local firehouse is still reverenced, but so is the arrival of a Bhutanese grocery store. I spent some time this week at the corner of Conkling and Eastern with Chris Ryer, a former city planner who directs the Southeast Community Development Corp.

Fish making the spring spawning run from the Chesapeake Bay upstream into the Patapsco River swim about 11 miles of cool, shallow, flowing water before hitting a concrete wall nearly three stories high: the Bloede Dam. The wildlife obstacle and human safety hazard has stood for more than a century in Patapsco Valley State Park, but its days could be numbered. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is continuing a years-long effort to clear the Patapsco of dams that have outlived their original industrial uses and now turns its attention to Bloede.