Sir David Attenborough, one of the great naturalists of our time, turns 98.

On May 8, 2024, Sir David Attenborough turned 98 years old.  Attenborough was born in England and became a famous broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and writer.  He is known throughout the world as being one of the most passionate and effective supporters of environmental causes and the natural world.  He has advocated for restoring biodiversity, voluntarily limiting human population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reducing meat consumption, and setting aside more areas for natural preservation.

Attenborough is critical of developed nations whose only concern about population is how to increase birth and/or immigration rates, which is based on the notion that evermore old people will need to be supported by evermore young people who will grow old and need evermore young people ad infinitum. He calls that an “ecological Ponzi scheme.”  He also wonders why no one in the US government (or other industrialized nations) has the responsibility to track and oversee population growth.

Call To Action: Stop sky-high immigration rates by supporting HRs 2 and 7833

Attenborough considers the term “Smart Growth” to be an oxymoron, and that anyone who believes “indefinite growth can go on forever in a finite world [or country] is either a madman or an economist.”  All countries should abide by the environmental ethic of striving to minimize per capita consumption as well as the rate of population growth.

Attenborough advocates for more outreach and education about demography and overpopulation, to raise awareness about how population growth drives environmental degradation.  He urges people to break the taboo that prevents discussions about population growth, especially among environmental activists and NGOs.  Population size and resource limits must be considered when setting environmental goals.

A prime example of this is the Biden administration’s 30×30 plan to conserve 30% of America’s landscape by the year 2030.  As of 2021, 13% of America’s lands were protected (i.e., 13×21) – an achievement that took 150 years.  Although the Biden administration has conserved, or is in the process of conserving, 24 million acres, this falls woefully short of the 416 million acres that would need to be protected to reach the 30% goal.  And by allowing millions of migrants to pour into (and remain in) our nation every year, the goal of protecting an additional 392 million acres becomes more distant than ever.  

In light of the widespread degradation and depletion of natural resources (e.g., water for drinking and irrigation, fertile soils/farmland, wilderness, rare species habitat), it’s clear that our nation needs to slow down population growth, specifically from immigration.  Historically high rates of legal immigration (one million per year) are now being eclipsed by Illegal immigration, with about 2.5 million illegal border crossers and visa overstayers per year. 

Even before this recent surge of illegal immigration, the U.S. Census Bureau had projected the US population to exceed 404 million by the Year 2060, with more than 90% of this growth due to immigration.