Connecting the Dots

By Frosty Wooldridge and Lesley Blackner

Jarch 16, 2004

Pop quiz! What is the current U.S. population? Over 292 million and growing by 8,200 per day. How does the U.S. rank among nations in its population? Third behind China and India! How many people were added to America in the 1990s? A numbing 33 million! How many people does this country add annually? Try 3.3 million!

How many Americans want unending population growth? Very few! However, the media and government for the past 20 years have squashed the debate. Nonetheless, the cliché is true: demography is destiny. Fifty years ago, Bangladesh, China and India ignored their exploding populations. Today, they stand mired in unsolvable problems with an irreversible crisis in every corner of their societies.

Even so, the United States loves preaching to the Third World on growth controls. The media laments the world’s human population has surpassed 6.2 billion. Hardly a word is whispered that America possesses the developed world’s fastest growing population. You think traffic is bad now—just wait another 20 years. What about the toxic brown cloud over your city? Anyone think water will be available with an added 200 million in 50 years?

Brought to you by your erudite government leaders, the official U.S. position is that population growth outside America is bad, but population growth within the US is tolerable, or, at least unstoppable. How did this hypocritical position arise?

Remember the “population bomb” of the early 1970s? Back then, the United States housed 100 hundred million less people within its borders. Only 34 years ago a national consensus emerged that an unending U.S. population growth was harmful to the nation. In response to this consensus, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), a law that is still on the books.

So what happened?

The US fertility rate reached replacement levels (2 kids per family) in the late 1970s. We didn’t want to end up like Bangladesh, which houses 129 million people in a landmass the size of Ohio. The US population growth would have stabilized at 255 million if we had stayed on course.

However, without citizen input or discussion, Congress also passed the Immigration Reform Act of 1965. Millions of legal immigrants annually, combined with unknown numbers of illegal immigrants, estimated at over 20 million--have ignited an unending US population juggernaut. Further, the Third World adds 80 million more people annually, which means an endless line of immigrants from overcrowded countries.

Today, we are becoming the new poster-child for over-population, taking our place beside Bangladesh, China and India. Those countries survive at subsistence levels unimaginable to Americans.

Under NEPA, every federal agency must consider and review the probable impacts of its rules, policies and actions on the “human environment” before it commits to a particular course of action. That way the government can make an informed decision. The “human environment” includes the physical environment, (air, water, endangered species and land) but also socio-economic conditions, cultural conditions, and demand for resources, jobs and services.

At 2.3 million legal and illegal immigrants annually, they are our de facto population policy. Immigration creates intolerable and unsolvable crises at the local, state and federal levels. These impacts range from national security, to demand for services like schools, health care, hospitals, food stamps, police, prisons, housing, sprawl, energy, water and environmental quality. It also covers that precious value you know and ‘feel’ when you see it: ‘quality of life’ and ‘standard of living’.

Can anyone in Southern California or the East Coast applaud their quality of life being enhanced in the past 20 years by this massive population invasion?

Under NEPA, the federal government should have been reviewing all these immigration-related impacts over the past 30 years. Then, the federal government and U.S. citizens would have had a better idea of the costs and benefits resulting from open borders. Policies and allocation of resources would have been more informed. There would have been genuine debate and discussion. Instead, NEPA has been completely ignored.

The former Soviet leader, Lenin said, “If we sell those capitalists enough rope, they will hang themselves.” Because immigration has been SO profitable with the massive cheap labor supply as well as jumping consumption levels, our corporations have been hanging American citizens, instead. Unemployment lines are where they’re ‘hanging’.

Our federal government turned a blind eye to the multiple impacts of immigration. No NEPA reviews have ever been conducted relating to immigration law, rules and policies. It’s yet another case of failing to connect the dots.

What would be a reasonable step when an individual or group realizes something is wrong? Accept the error and change direction. Like the Titanic should have!

Citizens who care about the fate of our country must demand the federal government get its head out of the sand and produce honest reviews concerning impacts of immigration driven population growth. NEPA was enacted 35 years ago for this reason. Americans pride ourselves upon being a nation of laws, but when it comes to immigration, our elected representatives in Congress as well as the president have abdicated their sworn duty to uphold, defend and protect the citizens of the United States.

It’s time for Americans to take the bull by the horns since their leaders will not. What will you do?

Lesley Blackner, is an environmental attorney practicing in Florida.

Home About Titanic Overpopulation Articles Books
Audio / Video Radio Links What you can do Contact Donate