Download
Vanishing Open Spaces
How much natural habitat and farmland did your state and city destroy in the last decade to accommodate expanding populations and individual appetites for developed land?
TIPS FOR RESEARCH
How much natural habitat and farmland did your state and city destroy in the last decade to accommodate expanding populations and individual appetites for developed land?
TIPS FOR RESEARCH
A succession of scientific and governmental commissions for three decades have come to the same conclusion - that there is a scientific rationale for stabilizing the U.S. population in order to meet environmental goals. While national environmental groups have dramatically changed their stance on U.S. population stabilization, government and scientific bodies have not.
The Washington Times reports an illegal alien pleaded guilty to causing a fire in the Sequoia National Forest last year that will scar the landscape for decades. The fire occurred after the alien’s release from jail, which was not reported to ICE due to California’s sanctuary law known as the TRUST Act.
The Washington Examiner reports the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) and a number groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that its policies did not take into consideration the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. Julie Axelrod, IRLI’s lead counsel on the case, said, “Our lawsuit will demonstrate that legal and illegal immigration have a very significant impact on the environment, which DHS has spent the last 46 years ignoring.”
Immigration policy now drives more than three-quarters of U.S. population growth. Without changes to immigration, the U.S. is projected to add nearly 100 million people (the equivalent of two and a half California's) by the year 2051, putting additional pressure on our water supply -- a very real side effect of current immigration levels.
The Florida of orchards, grasslands, marshes, pine scrub and open beaches continues to disappear at a rapid rate under the bulldozer’s blade of constant new development. How much of that is related to consumption and development patterns and how much of it is related to the increase in the number of Florida residents is the focus of this study.
High Country News -- By Tay Wiles
If you were to do a quick Google news search of “California drought and population growth,” you’d be lucky to find more than a few passing statements buried deep within articles regurgitating the same information. All of the news coverage on the devastating drought focuses on short-term problems and shallow solutions. Most writing about the drought assume that population growth is a factor that won’t help California’s water shortage. Unfortunately, I have yet to find any news coverage that attempts to come up with real solutions to rapid population growth in the We
We are told that reforming immigration policy and combating climate change are two key policy goals of President Obama as he begins his second term. But there is no evidence that the Obama administration sees any connection between them. This despite the fact that the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified population growth as one of the two key drivers of climate change; and that most of the increase in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in the past two decades has occurred due to population growth, while per capita emissions have remained relatively flat.
Water scarcity in the Western part of the country will be a pressing issue in 2013, predicts the General Accounting Office, and population growth fueled by high levels of immigration are partly to blame. In 2003, the GAO issued a report warning that by 2013 at least 36 states could face water shortages. But, states have been dealing with chronic water shortages for years with California, New Mexico and Arizona topping the list- proving that conditions are worse than the GAO's 2003 predictions.
The Census Bureau came out with its predictions on U.S. population this month. In response, Federal Departments including the Departments of Interior and Agriculture released reports on how this growth will affect our country’s natural resources including open space and water supply. The U.S. will add over 100 million people by 2050 due to mass immigration policies. Also to be expected by 2050 are severe water shortages and major losses of forests and open space. When will America realize that population stabilization is the answer to our sustainability dilemma?
The U.S. Forest Service has released a report this week which outlines how a growing population and increased urbanization in the next 50 years will drain the nation's natural resources including water supplies, open space, and forests. A recent study from the Center for Immigration Studies found that if current immigration levels remain steady, the population of the United States will increase by 127 million by the year 2050.
Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) announced a major new project: an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on U.S. immigration policy. PFIR also unveiled the website for the new project, and invited public comments on the study.The main policy decision to be evaluated in the new EIS is what level Congress should set for annual immigration into the United States.
What are your thoughts on U.S. population growth and immigration? Take our Earth Day survey and tell us what you think. Then, compare your responses to those of Americans in 1972 and other Americans across the country.
"The problems caused by population still make environmental news, but population is forgotten," said Roy Beck, a longtime environmental journalist who founded Numbers U.S.A., a leading group advocating immigration reforms.
The Government Accountability Office released a new report, stating that between 2006-2010, illegal aliens started 40% if the human-ignited wildfires along the U.S. - Mexico border. The study was carried out by the independent GAO, the investigative arm of the Congress, at the request of Senator John McCain of Arizona. The GAO investigated 77 of the reported 422 human-caused fires. Of the 77 fires investigated, federal officals concluded that 30 were ignited by illegal border crossers.
"[I]t's phony to say 'I'm for the environment but not for limiting immigration…'"
-Sen Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day
Those environmentalists who think we can double or triple U.S. population without wiping out wildlife and scalping our last wildernesses, are living in a fool's paradise....
Some of the devastating environmental impacts of illegal immigration through these protected areas include:
The Park Service has closed the ohono O'odham Indian Reservation, Organ Pipe National Monument, and Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge due to the "unacceptable level of risk to the public and staff" from the "high level of illegal activity going on."
Trash
One man loudly told me that I should be ashamed of myself for advocating U.S. population stabilization at an Earth Day festival -- and indicated that the founders of Earth Day were shamefully selfish if they advocated what NumbersUSA is advocating. But much more common at this Dallas event was a teacher who had her full class stand in our booth for me to give them a 10-minute population lecture about our "Wall charts."
This is the 41st Earth Day, and Congress continues to defy the goals of the First Earth Day 1970 by forcing massive U.S. population growth. NumbersUSA has a booth at the giant Earth Day festival in the Arts District of downtown Dallas. I'll be adding to this blog today and tomorrow with observations. The big quote in our booth is from Gaylord Nelson, the Father of Earth Day: ". . . no way to forge a sustainable society without stabilizing U.S. population."
The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations along with the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest, and Public Lands hosted a joint hearing Friday titled “The Border: Are Environmental Laws and Regulation Impeding Security and Harming the Environment?”
A new website established by the state of Arizona focuses on the environmental damage that is caused by illegal immigration. According to the new website, http://azbordertrash.gov/index.html, more than 2,000 tons of garbage are left in Southern Arizona due to illegal border crossings.
Cairo, Egypt is a city of approximately 18 million people within the metropolitan area. That’s more than twice the population of New York City. Cairo is also a city of extreme pollution. It is said that living in Cairo is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, as the average resident ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day. I can easily see how any city in the United States growing too fast is destined to suffer similar environmental concerns.
Take a look at our special Earth Day Report Cards, with grades for all 535 Members of Congress. On this 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, a lot of politicians will claim to be champions of environmental sustainability. But many of them are actually champions of high immigration which is driving a U.S. population explosion that experts have said makes environmental sustainability impossible to achieve. Come look at those grades . . .
A philosophy professor with a focus on environmental ethics and policy explains how he found beauty in nature, and then found that immigration-fueled population growth was a major factor behind every major threat to nature.
No, I'm not suggesting that immigrants deliberately or inadvertently destroy more green space than U.S.-born residents. In fact, each immigrant on average destroys a bit less. But the numbers of immigrants (4 times the traditional average) are resulting in the clearing, scraping and developing of nearly a million additional acres of natural habitat and farmland every year. Is this not a crisis demanding urgent attention on this week of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day?
Pres. Clinton's Task Force understood it. The Father of Earth Day understood it. You and I understand it. Why does Congress not understand that U.S. environmental sustainability is not possible unless we greatly reduce immigration numbers?
A new report from Progressives for Immigration Reform discusses the impact of high immigration levels on America's ecological footprint and depleting natural resources. The report, authored by Leon Kolankiewicz, says that "U.S. population currently exceeds the carrying capacity of our land and resource base."
Americans use hundreds of millions of gallons of oil each and every year. As our nation attempts to reduce our addiction to oil, we continue to allow more than 1 million immigrants into our nation every year. Even as we try to cut back our oil usage, our growing population fueled by immigration continues to push our oil consumption up. http://ChangeTheNumbers.org
Roy Beck further explains a new report that discusses the positive impact the border fence has had on the area's ecosystems.
Veteran journalist Stephen Dinan this weekend published the most informative and balanced report to date on the environmental issues at stake along the border. While most environmental groups fight the building of fences along the Mexican border, Dinan found caretakers of the environment down there who said the building of a fence has allowed the desert to sprout back to life.
The president has talked a lot since taking office about creating new energy guidelines, and the White House paid the usual lip service to Earth Day. But I’m wondering: How does this president square his energy and environmental concerns with his apparent willingness to continue fueling our population growth with a reckless immigration policy that benefits only vote-hungry politicians and companies fearful of losing their abundant supply of cheap foreign labor?
The father of the Green Revolution has just died. He made it possible for billions more people to live on the Earth without starving. Some people looking at the environmental long term have wondered if that was such a great deal. I've been in California all week and can't figure out how in the world 18 million more people are to be crammed into this state by 2050. There are things to be learned from Norman Borlaug. . . .
Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship wants to develop a 50-year immigration plan to ensure that future intakes consider a wide range of long-term issues.
President Obama has set multiple guidelines to protect our land for future generations. Somehow the politicians who are most vocal about protecting our environment often do not want to address how current immigration policies are detrimental to this goal. This new video and a short summary video explain how the United States cannot reach its environmental goals unless it stops its policy of forcing large population growth through mass immigration.
I was dining in downtown Boston with a long-time acquaintance of Teddy Kennedy at the very time the Senator died a week ago. We had discussed what had caused Kennedy to pursue immigration policies that so fundamentally changed America. When I awoke the next morning to the Massachusetts TV stations doing their eulogies, I decided to wait until after burial to share my thoughts. . . .
"The Wounded Land: The Environment and Open Space" explains how the United States' out-of-control immigration policies are hurting America's environment and what will occur if Congress fails to act.
View the full video.
A recent essay posted on an environmental website at Yale University, YaleGlobal, discusses the touchy subject of immigration's impact on environmentalism. The positions that political liberals take on both issues can often contradict each other.
Forty years ago this morning, I was visiting with Milton Berle in his hotel room near Grand Rapids, Michigan, sharing our reactions to watching the moon landing in the middle of the night. That evening, we met again over a giant bowl of potato salad at a backyard picnic as Congressman Gerald Ford dipped and recounted his call from Pres. Nixon soon after the moon walk.