Population growth in the region is driving sprawl, causing 86% of the loss of open space from 1982 to 2012. Per capita land consumption is responsible for the other 14%.
Local, state, and national policies are responsible for attracting new residents to the Piedmont, and immigration policy plays a large role, as 40% of population growth in the southern Piedmont is due to new immigrants and their children.
In 1970, we achieved a national consensus to stop squandering our natural resources and to restore and preserve the quality of our water, air, eco-systems, and bio-diversity for future generations. Americans are FOR the idea of meeting most of those goals by the 1990s.
Author and lecturer Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, has been one of the most visible chroniclers and spokesmen on the effects of mass immigration on quality of life issues in the United States. The Houston Chronicle labeled him “one of the five leading thinkers in the national immigration debate.” The prestigious Foreign Affairs journal stated that nobody has made a more persuasive case for cutting current high levels of immigration. “All sides can learn from Roy Beck,” said Business Week magazine.