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"Amid an ongoing debate in the U.S. on immigration from Mexico, Gallup estimates 6.2 million Mexican adults say they would like to move permanently to the United States if given the chance. That's close to half of the 14 million Mexicans -- or 19% of the adult population -- who say they would like to resettle somewhere else; would-be migrants in Mexico choose Canada and Spain as their other top desired destinations," the Gallup polling organization said earlier this summer.
"While Gallup's migration findings reflect people's aspirations rather than their intentions, they reveal the desires of potential migrants around the world -- an important consideration for leaders seeking to proactively manage migration and migrant policy in their countries."
The Environmentalist’s Guide to a Sensible Immigration Policy makes the connection between one of the most important issues facing Americans in their everyday lives — urban sprawl — and its principal cause: immigration-related population growth. All too often, so-called environmentalists pretend as if this connection does not exist. Can you imagine discussing the U.S. trade deficit without mentioning China? Or analyzing the looming Social Security crisis with no mention of retiring baby boomers? Well, that’s what is happening when environmentalists discuss the problem of urban sprawl or efforts to reduce U.S. CO2 emissions without mentioning immigration and its enormous impact on population growth.
In response to charges of “hatred” by the open-border radical group Imagine2050, Progressives for Immigration Reform Executive Director Leah Durant says that if the group considers all organizations that examine immigration policy for its impact on U.S. growth and environmental sustainability as “anti immigrant,” they also labeling the late Barbara Jordan, and all Americans concerned with the swelling of our population as such. The fact is that, according to the U.S. Census, the United States has the highest annual growth rate of any developed nation, and that it is time for policies that address the impact of uncontrolled growth on our environment. Click here to read Ms. Durant’s response in its entirety.
By Eric Ruark, Research Analyst
The political elite have jetted to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) taking place December 7-18, 2009. While being ferried around in limousines, munching on caviar sculptures, and generally emitting a huge carbon footprint, they are in the midst of discussing how the rest of us must be forced to drastically reduce our own standards of living in order to reduce global warming.
If one buys the premise of anthropogenic climate change, then one also has to accept that that there are two ways to reduce this cause and effect. The first is to reduce consumption and emissions per capita. The second is to reduce the size of the world’s population, especially in developed countries where per capita emissions are disproportionately high. So one has to ask: if President Obama is serious about ending global warming why does he support growing the U.S. population by tens of millions of people through immigration over the next decade, admitting those whose carbon footprint will be greater in the U.S. than it would have been in their home countries?
The Copenhagen conference is not about U.S. immigration policy, but it is precisely because of our immigration policy that the United States can not provide any real leadership on environmental issues. While the rest of the world looks to us to set an example, we can only provide bad precedent. Given the opportunity to stabilize our population and to work toward a sustainable future, our approach has been to grow our population by 80 million over the last thirty years and to put the United States on course to reach a billion people by century’s end.
The U.S. population is rising faster than any other developed nation and our per capita energy consumption is the highest in the world. This is environmentally and economically unsustainable, but the few who reap the financial benefits of U.S. immigration policy have funded politicians who push for amnesty and continued mass immigration at the expense of the American people.
Many Americans are skeptical about the claims being made at Copenhagen, and the release of e-mails hacked from computers at the East Anglia Climate Research Unit have only added to this growing skepticism. It’s not that Americans are not concerned about the environment; it’s that they mistrust blatant political posturing and resent the dearth of responsible and capable governance.
The first step toward a responsible environmental policy would be to recognize the environmental impact of U.S. population growth, and to understand that our fixation on economic growth no matter the cost to the environment is a grave error. Despite what politicians in D.C. may say, we can not continue to grow at an unprecedented rate and preserve the environment for future generations. This is simply not possible. We have to make a choice.
We do not have to accept the doom and gloom forecasts of Al Gore, and certainly should reject his push to circumvent our democratic process so that he can “save the planet.” We can, however, affect real and lasting change by ending our rapid population growth due to mass immigration. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has reminded President Obama that any agreement signed in Copenhagen would not be binding on the U.S. unless approved by Congress. As American citizens we can use the same democratic process to send members to Congress who will put the interests of American citizens first and foremost, and who will finally stop giving given lip-service to environmentalism and instead enact polices that actually protect the U.S. environment.
U.S. Overpopulation....Why Doesn't Anyone Talk About Immigration?
Eric Ruark, Sr. Researcher, FAIR
The size of the world’s population receives a lot of attention from scientists and academics. The overwhelming consensus among them is that there are simply too many people already on the planet, and that earth’s burgeoning population growth is a recipe for disaster. Most also believe that governments around the world are not taking this issue very seriously, ignoring what may become an intractable political crisis. But what to do about it?
That is the question that divides those who deal with population issues. There are some who advocate direct government intervention in family planning, such as preventing couples from having more than one child. Most, however, take a more moderate and humane approach, endorsing greater education on family planning, or eliminating tax incentives for couples who have multiple children.
There is a lot of room for discussion when it comes to the question of population policy. Unfortunately, one thing that often gets left out of the discussion, but what is crucial to any public policy decision, is immigration. Even those who work in population related fields many times choose to ignore how international migration fits into the picture.
A good example of skirting the issue was the forum “Population Growth and Rising Consumption: What’s Sustainable?” sponsored by the Population Institute, the Population Media Center and the Wallace Global Fund and held on October 6, 2009. The forum featured “five prominent experts on population, economics and sustainability” yet there was virtually no mention of immigration. Only one speaker raised the issue, a Canadian economist and Professor of Environmental Studies at York University, who said “talking about immigration as a tool for population policy, it’s a very touchy and difficult area, but I don’t think we can shy away from it.”
The problem is we are shying away from it, just as the speakers at the population forum did. Immigration is driving population growth in the U.S., and we are on course to reach a population of one billion by the end of this century. Isn’t that something that should be discussed by our political leaders, and shouldn’t so-called environmentalists be concerned about the ecological disaster that a billion people in the U.S. would cause? Right now, politicians in D.C. want to pass legislation that markedly increases the number of people who come into the U.S. each year. We might reach a billion people sooner than we think.
What lies behind the exorbitant U.S. immigration numbers is the mistaken belief that we need to grow in order to survive. True, big business needs cheaper labor and more consumers in order to maximize their profits. But is this in the best interest of America’s long-term needs. In order to generate increased revenue developers will hire illegal workers and seek to build on every bit of open land. They have politicians in their pocket, and have likewise bought off many environmental organizations. Green, Inc, published in 2008, exposes how large corporations pay off large environmental organizations in order to win “green” endorsements. Even Wal-Mart has gotten in on the ruse.
Surely, not all academics are paid off with corporate money. So, why then do they remain mostly silent about immigration? Perhaps is a larger political perspective that obstructs their view on this issue. Or, maybe they find the topic too controversial or complex to approach. Theoretical models are easier to deal with then the human implications of immigration policy. Yet, “experts” should consider the human implications of failing to reduce the flow of immigrants to the U.S.
Only by reducing immigration can the U.S. achieve population stability, and it is the only way to begin to achieve environmental sustainability. That conversation has been ignored for over forty years, and any discussion of population growth or environmental policy that disregards immigration is inherently flawed and can lead to no genuine solution. How can Americans advise others around the world to adopt sustainable population policies when our own situation is out of control? The lesson we are teaching is that exponential growth is the key to economic prosperity, the way to the American Dream. This is a catastrophic message to send to the rest of the world, and one that will result in catastrophe for us, as well.
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity examines population growth, urban growth, overconsumption and economic growth as it investigates the addictions and myths we need to leave behind in order to become a sustainable civilization. This provocative film does not shy from hot topics and controversy, so immigration policies will be addressed.
For more information, or to join the grass roots support network or contribute to this non-profit project, visit www.growthbusters.com
As the new US Administration and Congress begin to tackle immigration reform, they will again be faced with the weighty question of how large should America’s population be in the future. Should America’s population continue to grow indefinitely, perhaps doubling to 600 million by the end of the century? Clearly, any answer to this vital demographic question has serious and far-reaching economic, political, social and environmental consequences for America as well as for the international community of nations. Read the full study at Yale Global Online.
According to a report authored by FAIR’s Director of Special Projects Jack Martin entitled Immigration, Energy, and the Environment, Americans actually achieved more than a nine percent reduction in per capita energy consumption between 1973 and 2007. During that same time period, however, the U.S. population increased nearly 70 percent, with more than 31 percent of that increase directly attributable to legal immigration alone. In addition, the report notes that “the share of population growth attributable to immigration is still higher when illegal immigration and the children born to the immigrants after their arrival are included.” This population increase led to a 33 percent increase in American energy consumption from 1973 to 2007 — an increase that can be attributed primarily to U.S. population growth over that period.
With Congress and the Obama Administration considering an energy bill, wouldn’t it make sense for them to take into account the single largest contributing factor to greenhouse gas emissions over the past 35 years? Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. The House of Representatives recently passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, legislation more commonly referred to as “Cap-and-Trade.” The bill seeks to, among other things, “cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” a move that supporters of the legislation suggest would help fight global climate change. However, the bill fails to address the principle cause of the problem it is seeking to solve: immigration generated population growth.
According to Immigration, Energy, and the Environment, “Any effort by the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must take population growth into account.” The report goes on to point out that the central component of an energy policy that deals with population growth “must include an effective and enforceable immigration policy that curbs immigration levels to the point that it is no longer driving U.S. population growth.”
The report is available in its entirety here.
Joseph Chamie, writing for the YaleGlobal publication, finds that immigration has been the prime driver of U.S. population growth throughout its history, with the strongest impact on growth most recently.
Chamie notes that every population advisory board or committee by the U.S. has found that more population is not the answer to any problem faced by the country. Without more of a focus on the implications of immigration policy for population, there could be 600 million Americans by 2100, he writes.
