At the first Earth Day celebration, in 1970, environmentalists heartily embraced stabilization of America s population as a core objective of their movement, without which they believed no amount of legislation or spending could stop and reverse the harm being done to the natural world.
But on the eve of Earth Day 2001, no national environmental group works for an end to U.S. population growth. This despite the fact that the 2000 census showed that the 1990s saw the largest population growth in American history, larger even than the peak of the postwar Baby Boom.
What happened?
The environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s had a comprehensive approach to move toward sustainable environmental protection and restoration in this country. But virually no national environmental group today works for an end to U.S. population growth. Yet the effects of constant growth are among the most contentious issues in local communities: sprawl, congestion, over-crowded schools, habitat loss, destruction of open spaces.
One of the most important was the change in the source of population growth, from births by native-born American women to immigration and births by immigrant women. In the 1990s, immigrant-related growth was equivalent to 70 percent of U.S. population increase. This development caused environmental groups to lapse into silence on U.S. population policy for a variety of reasons, including the fear that advocating immigration cuts would alienate progressive allies; the transformation of population and environment into global, as opposed to national, issues; and concerns that funding might be jeopardized, since many foundation boards include left-leaning globalists and right-leaning representatives of multinational corporations, each with strong biases in favor of high immigration.
While most Americans realize that our rapid, immigration-driven population growth is affecting their quality of life, most leaders of environmental organizations and elected officials in Washington seem afraid to deal with the issue. To continue ignoring the large population component of our increasing environmental problems will certainly doom our grandchildren to a very bleak future. Only if we control our growing population will we have the time and resources to deal with the other problems facing us today.
Sierra Club Press Secretary Joanie Clayburgh blaming the negative consequences of relentless growth on a "lack of planning," told ProjectUSA that the solutions to the power crisis now occurring in California were efficiency, cleaner plants and renewable energy sources. But she would not even discuss population growth.
To test a person for insanity, the story goes, put them in a room in which a water faucet is open and the sink is overflowing. Hand the person a mop and tell them to clean up the flood. If the person begins to mop without first turning off the faucet, observers should deduce the person is probably insane.
