Sierra Club: immigration can save rain forests
Issue 66: March 19, 2001

+== TIME OUT PROJECT ==+

In a March 16 Las Vegas Sun article, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope suggests that the recent destruction of an Indonesian rain forest due to ethnic war in that country could have been prevented by importing some of the warring factions to the United States. (Proposal to curb growth divides group http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2001/mar/16/511575172.html )

Most people would probably consider such a proposal reckless on the face of it — and absurd besides, since the developing world adds another United States in population every four years (!), much of which is at war with itself at any given time.

But it is unlikely that many Americans realize how globally irresponsible such a position really is. Studies show that mass U.S. immigration hinders efforts by developing countries to decrease population growth — the primary threat to the planet’s well being, as Pope himself admitted in a 1999 Sierra Magazine editorial. (For more information on the studies, contact Dr. Virginia Abernathy at virginia.abernethy@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu )

To justify the Sierra Club’s refusal to take a position against an environmentally devastating U.S. immigration policy that, at current levels, will double the country’s population within the lifetimes of today’s college students, Carl Pope was quoted in the Sun piece as saying "efforts to control (population) growth have to be global to have any effect."

It never fails to amaze us here at ProjectUSA to hear someone suggest that we all ignore the consequences of U.S. overpopulation simply because overpopulation is also a global problem. To us, it is like removing the door to one’s house because crime is a citywide problem.

Some believe the Sierra Club is indulging in this re-warmed version of the old Western missionary impulse in order to avoid discussion of the real driving forces behind mass immigration: greed and ethnic identity politics.

Bill Elder, population issue coordinator of the Cascade, Wash. chapter of the Sierra Club was quoted in the same article: "The national organization fears being tagged as racist, as most of the immigrants arriving in this country are Hispanic or Asian-American." But, according to the Sun, "Pope said that claims the club fears the racism charges are ‘absolute garbage.’"

Whatever the club’s real reason for ignoring the immigration issue, housing developers support the leadership’s refusal to address immigration and U.S. population stabilization, according to the Sun article. Indeed, rumors persist that the Sierra Club has accepted a $5 million anonymous grant on the condition that it take no public position on immigration. However, Bruce Hamilton, the Conservation Director for the Sierra Club told ProjectUSA that rumors of a $5 million grant with those strings attached are "patently untrue."

The Sierra Club needs to stand apart from the land developers and recognize that the only "diversity" that is an environmental issue is biodiversity. If the Sierra Club continues to shrink from taking a responsible stand on explosive U.S. population growth, which now is almost entirely the result of federal immigration policies, they are sticking the young with an environmentally disastrous future. This once honorable organization is ensuring its own marginalization.

Read the new report that shows at least 50% of all new sprawl in the United States is a direct result of explosive U.S. population growth: http://www.sprawlcity.org/

Additional reading: "Green Gag" http://www.vdare.com/green_gag.htm

Also: "Optimism and Overpopulation" in which Vanderbilt University demographer Virginia Abernathy says "Overpopulation… remains primarily a local problem."
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/immigr/populate.htm

+== TAKE POSITIVE ACTION ==+

You can contact the Sierra Club leadership and tell them what you think of Carl Pope’s idea of bringing the world’s masses to our high consumption society as a way to protect the global environment:

85 Second Street, Second Floor
San Francisco CA, 94105-3441
information@sierraclub.org
Telephone 415-977-5500 Fax 415-977-5799

+== QUOTE OF THE WEEK ==+

"We must not allow our desire to be decent and well-mannered people to overwhelm the substance of our principles or our determination to fight for their success. Ultimately, we should seek both caring and vigorous virtues — but above all, we must not allow the former to dominate the latter."

Clarence Thomas,
Remarks at Francis Boyer Lecture; America Institute for Public Policy Research
Feb. 13, 2001

+== E-MAIL OF THE WEEK ==+

I will add for the benefit of the folks that use the word "racist" on their adversaries, that the environment does not distinguish skin colors as it is being destroyed. Like everything else that involves illegal and legal immigration from third world countries, the bottom line is GREED.

Haydee Pavia-West Hills, CA

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