Myopia and Denial

The late Senator Gaylord Nelson (founder of Earth Day) wrote that "Population will be a major determinant of our future, how we live and in what condition; talk of it should not be muzzled by McCarthyism or any other demagogic contrivance...rhetoric of this sort has succeeded in silencing the environmental and academic communities and has tainted any discussion of population-immigration issues as 'politically incorrect.'"

A succession of scientific and governmental commissions for three decades (from the President's Commission on Population Growth and the American Future in 1972 to the President's Council on Sustainable Development in 1996) 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, the Federal government has not.

Since 1970, native-born American families have averaged 2.1 children per family. Ceteris paribus, this fertility rate would enable us to maintain a stable population and preserve our natural resources and open spaces for future generations. However, despite the conscious efforts of Americans, the U.S. population has swelled by more than 100 million people during that time. More than three-quarters of that growth is directly attributable to immigration. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that U.S. population will grow by another 135 million people in less than 50 years! More than 80 percent of that growth will be directly attributable to immigration.

America averaged approximately 250,000 new immigrants every year during its first TWO HUNDRED years of existence. Today, we average over 2 million new immigrants every year (approximately one million legal immigrants plus one million illegal aliens and who knows how many chain immigrations) Everyone who cares about the future they are leaving to their children and grandchildren should support more environmentally-friendly immigration numbers in the future.

This is the most important issue of our time. The politicians have avoided it for far too long. The limit of finite natural resources per capita as population increases without bounds is zero. How far down that road do we want to go? Let's tailor our tax and immigration policies to enable us to achieve a stable population as soon as possible. Let's adopt a national objective of a stable population to be achieved within 20 years. That is the only way we can preserve the America we know and love and husband our dwindling natural resources.