Reducing immigration is one of the top factors necessary to achieve environmental stability in the US, according to a new report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The report, called US Immigration and the Environment, states that one of the largest obstacles to achieving critical environmental goals is the rapidly expanding population of the country and that the biggest factor driving that growth is immigration.
Dan Stein, the president of FAIR, says that ignoring the number one factor behind population growth of the US is ‘completely disingenuous’ for anybody genuinely concerned about the sustainability of the country and its carrying capacity. Stein added that immigration was responsible for more than 50 percent of the population growth in the US over the last half-century, and will have generated 75 percent of it in the next half.
The US is responsible for the world’s biggest ecological footprint in resource consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases. The increasing number of people, the majority of which is a consequence of mass immigration, has also continued to undermine attempts to cut the impact on the worldwide environment made by the nation. The continued population growth is wiping out any gains made by improved efficiency and conservation.
Stein says that it is simply impossible for critical ecological challenges to be addressed by the US while it heads toward increasing its population by as much as 100 million by the middle of the 21st century.