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Immigration And The Environment
Topic Started: Jun 9 2006, 03:08 AM (355 Views)
RETIRED AND LUV IT
Member
I ran across this site last night from a group that calls themselves "SUSPS" ( Support U.S. Population Stabilization" ) They are members of the Sierra Club that disagree with the Clubs population policy.

I am not a fan of the Sierra Club but this group "SUSPS" has a valid point even if you reduce their projections by 50%. The question I ask, can the U.S. natural and imported resources support this kind of growth?

Quote : "Unless we act to change our country's immigration policies, U.S. population will double this century - practically within the lifetimes of children born today.5 By the year 2020, if current population trends continue, the U.S. will add enough population to create another New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Indianapolis, San Jose, Memphis, Washington D.C., Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Boston, Columbus, New Orleans, Cleveland, Denver, Seattle, and El Paso - plus the next 75 largest cities in the U.S.3 - if we don't act now to stabilize U.S. population."

"Immigration is the largest factor contributing to population growth in the U.S. Immigration contributes over 2.25 million people to the U.S. population annually (1.5 million legal immigrants and illegal immigrants as of 2001-2002, now estimated at 1.7 million in 2003) plus 750,000 births to immigrant woman annually).31, 38 The total foreign-born population in the U.S. is now 31.1 million, a record 57% increase since 1990. 9-11 million of those are here illegally - a 4.5 million increase since 1990."


U.S. Immigration
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cmoehle
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Chris - San Antonio TX
This argument is as sky-is-falling alarmist as global warming.

It argues "Population growth is influenced by three factors: mortality..., birth rates or fertility... and net immigration...."

What about economics and it's influences on all three of those factors?

The argument also places projections of population growth against what it assumes is will be steady-state environment, production and consumption. What about the influence of economics on these factors?

Finally, the argument calls for an isolated solution to a global problem.
Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.
--Barry Goldwater
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RETIRED AND LUV IT
Member
Chris,

Thank you for educating me, it's nice to know that the U.S. population growth will be controlled by economics and there won't be a drain on our natural resources. I did a quick check on a few of the economic power houses to the South of us.

Ecuador: birth rate: 31 per 1000
fertility rate: 4 children per female
El Salvador: birth rate: 29 - 36 per 1000
fertility rate: 4 children per female
Mexico: birth rate: 17 - 23 per 1000
fertility rate: 3 children per female

Now for the U.S.: birth rate: 14 - 15 per 1000
fertility rate: 2 children per female

Hispanics have the highest fertility rate of any U.S. minority, with the average Hispanic woman giving birth to three children in her lifetime. Darn, that's the same as the economic power house to the South of us, Mexico. Now I'm and old man and not too wise but I believe that a religion that is anti birth-control and education or lack thereof and the natural sexual urges of man and woman has more to do with population growth than economics. I wonder what the average income for Hispanics in the U.S. is vs. Mexico?
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cmoehle
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Chris - San Antonio TX
This also reminds me of the sky-is-falling peak oil theories.

Tell me, how can population exceed it's economic ability to feed itself?

Tell me, if excessive population brought here by our economy brought down the economy, why would people continue to immigrate here?


I don't disagree that religion that is anti-birth control has a strong influence as well.
Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.
--Barry Goldwater
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campingken
Member
Perhaps I am mistaken but areas in India and China have populations that cannot sustain themselves. Seems like they deal with famine on a regular basis.

Of course I also believe in Global Warming and that cheap oil is a thing of the past..

Ken

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cmoehle
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Chris - San Antonio TX
" Perhaps I am mistaken but areas in India and China have populations that cannot sustain themselves."

Explain, then, how it is they are growing economically while we are stagnating.


"Of course I also believe in Global Warming and that cheap oil is a thing of the past.."

The earth is warming. Question is should we be alarmed?

Cheap oil being a thing of the past is why peak oil will never be seen. Simple economics.
Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.
--Barry Goldwater
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cmoehle
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Chris - San Antonio TX
Environmental Heresies
Quote:
 
For 50 years, the demographers in charge of human population projections for the United Nations released hard numbers that substantiated environmentalists' greatest fears about indefinite exponential population increase. For a while, those projections proved fairly accurate. However, in the 1990s, the U.N. started taking a closer look at fertility patterns, and in 2002, it adopted a new theory that shocked many demographers: human population is leveling off rapidly, even precipitously, in developed countries, with the rest of the world soon to follow. Most environmentalists still haven't got the word. Worldwide, birthrates are in free fall. Around one-third of countries now have birthrates below replacement level (2.1 children per woman) and sinking. Nowhere does the downward trend show signs of leveling off. Nations already in a birth dearth crisis include Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Russia -- whose population is now in absolute decline and is expected to be 30 percent lower by 2050. On every part of every continent and in every culture (even Mormon), birthrates are headed down. They reach replacement level and keep on dropping. It turns out that population decrease accelerates downward just as fiercely as population increase accelerated upward, for the same reason. Any variation from the 2.1 rate compounds over time.
Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.
--Barry Goldwater
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campingken
Member
Parts of India and China are starving and other areas are prosperous. Afghanistan has one city with paved roads and the rest of the country is connected by donkey trails. Lots of nations consist of the well off and the desperate. We are slowly heading down this road.

Personally I am alarmed about global warming and what the future has in store for my sons.

Ken
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