Stimulating Sprawl…
Trash Number and Population …

COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann

The Obama White House has worked hard to make sure that whenever it cites our nation’s economic problems it reminds voters that it is still unraveling the myriad financial messes former President George W. Bush left at their doorstep.

That tactic will only work for so long before the nation’s economic policy becomes totally owned by President Obama himself.

The same is true about immigration.

For the first six and a half years of his presidency, President Bush reigned over a period that saw our immigration problem explode. Hordes of illegals flooded across our nation’s southern border and interior immigration enforcement was almost nonexistent. Finally, the American public rose up in protest against his plans for extensive immigration reform that included amnesty and citizenship. After two failed attempts to push this dangerous measure through Congress, the Bush White House finally saw the handwriting on the wall and started to enforce the immigration laws. In the final year and a half before they left town, they made a big show of stepped-up workplace raids by the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Now, the question hangs heavy in Washington: What will President Obama do on the immigration front? There are two scenarios playing out in the nation’s capital.

The first scenario has it that President Obama is deeply indebted to the Hispanic lobby and the pro-immigration groups that worked so hard to get him elected and will dance to their tune. They are ready to demand a full push for amnesty very soon for the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants now living in our borders. Many say that the President will oblige them come September when the economic fires are put out.

The feeling here is that with his party holding strong numbers in Congress to help shape any final immigration reform measures, the President may push for measures that will radically rewrite our nation’s immigration laws against the wishes of a huge majority of Americans. By making the whole process a giant circus show where those opposed to amnesty are labeled as “racists” and “xenophiles”, the President can only win more points with the Hispanic community and the open border groups. Even if the American people once more speak up loudly against amnesty and the issue ends in a stalemate on Capitol Hill, President Obama remains the “champion” of the underdog illegal immigrants.

Some say that President Obama is too politically savvy to risk a push for flat-out amnesty – especially at a time when the economy is in turmoil and jobs are scarce. Thus, the second scenario whereby the President, in the words of Congressman Lamar Smith (R, Tex), would create an immigration policy, based on “a thousand cuts.”

A moratorium on workplace enforcement raids…an end to the E-verify system whereby employers are required to check the legal status of job applicants…cutting funds for the border fence…a waning of deportation efforts…and other stealth measures involving regulatory changes and funding, can go a long way toward appeasing the pro-immigration lobby. President Obama can continue to promise to tackle the volatile immigration issue head-on when the time is right…but the time never really becomes right and he sails through re-election. Then, perhaps he goes full-bore for amnesty when he has nothing to lose politically.

While there is no telling which scenario will play out in the coming months we may get an inkling of what’s to come after President Obama returns from Mexico, and his talks with President Felipe Calderon.

Because of the uncertainty of the what, when and how surrounding the Obama administration’s plans on immigration reform, NPG has determined that we must be prepared to react at the drop of a hat and mobilize our members. That is why we have created an NPG Anti-Amnesty Battle Fund and are asking our members to be generous in their financial support to help us fight and prevail over the rich, powerful pro-immigration lobby the minute our opponents begin their political push.

From this moment forward, President Obama totally owns the immigration issue. Will he ratchet up the stakes? That’s his decision to make. Whatever option he takes, it is sure to greatly exacerbate our nation’s future population crisis.



STIMULATING SPRAWL…

All the talk about the billions of dollars in the recently passed stimulus bill going to “rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure” has triggered a major debate in Texas where plans are underway to spend $181 billion in stimulus money on a new toll road that critics say will greatly contribute to urban sprawl.

A recent story in The New York Times by Michael Cooper points out that at issue is a new master-planned community miles away from Houston’s city center where plans call for 21,000 new homes on 11,400 acres from just one developer (others are ready to start building once the road is completed).

Those in favor of the development and toll road argue that plans for it have been in the mix for decades and that it is better to plan for growth rather than have it occur haphazardly. Opponents – of which there are many – say expanding peoples’ commutes and thus adding to pollution and energy costs is wrongheaded. They feel the money would be better invested on mass transit or alleviating congestion on existing roads. There is also an environmental element to the debate in that the new road will “destroy part of the last 150,000 acres of a prairie that was once 1,000 square miles.”

NPG notes that such spending will surely create much-needed jobs in today’s depressed economy. However, this story is reflective of the poor planning that is going on across the nation where growth and sprawl too often dominate urban planning efforts when more serious thought should be given to not only reining-in our population numbers but also minimizing the ever-increasing footprint too many people leave on our valuable land. We applaud the efforts of the Sierra Club in fighting this road as it will hopefully send a message to those in charge that they have to seriously readjust their planning for the future. Click here to read more.



TRASH NUMBERS AND POPULATION

The Washington Post carried a story earlier this month by Brigid Schulte that was rich in details about the volume of waste today’s growing population is spinning off.

While the intent of the story was to relate how the recession has translated into less waste heading for the landfills in recent months, the text carried a number of revealing statistics that should ring the alarm bells for anyone concerned about how our nation is going to cope with waste in the future.

Among the interesting facts:

• The EPA says 254.1 million tons of trash were produced in 2007; 63.3 million tons were recycled, 21.7 million tons were composted, 31.9 million tons were burned and the rest, 137.2 million tons, wound up in landfills.
• There are 1,794 landfills in the U.S. and the EPA estimates that they will be full in 20 years.
• From 1960 to 2007, the amount of stuff that Americans threw away nearly doubled from 2.7 pounds a person daily to 4.6.

A silver lining in the story relates how the decreased volume of trash in recent months, due to people not buying so much, has extended the life of some landfills by a year or so. However, that is little solace for a nation confronting a population of almost 450 million people by mid-century. The article quotes Ben Boxer, a spokesman for Fairfax County’s (VA) solid waste program as stating, “…the economy is forcing people to heed the environmentalists’ mantra: Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! Repair!” In the hopes of protecting the countless thousands of acres that will be sacrificed for landfill in the coming decades, let’s hope the concept of less waste takes hold and lasts well beyond the recession’s end. Click here to read more.



POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

RALEIGH AND AUSTIN – FASTEST GROWING CITIES

Raleigh-Cary, NC and Austin-Round Rock, TX, were the fastest-growing metro areas between 2007 and 2008, according to July 1, 2008 population estimates released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Other information detailed in the report on population estimates for the nation’s metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas and counties included:

• 94 of the 100 counties (with a population of 10,000 or more) with the fastest population growth were in either the South (71 counties) or the West (23 counties). The remaining six were in the Midwest.
• Among the 100 fastest-growing counties, the majority were in Texas (19), Georgia (14), North Carolina (11) or Utah (9).

LATINO VOTE

According to an article found on www.Mexidata.info, final numbers from the 2008 elections confirm that Latinos are “the ‘new political force of the 21st century’ in the US. Latino voter turnout, immigrant and non-immigrant, exceeded many predictions and nearly doubled from 5.9 million voters in 2000 to more than 10 million in 2008.”

U.S. BIRTHS SET RECORD

AOL carried a story last week that reported that the 4,317,119 U.S. births in 2007 topped a record first set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom. “The new numbers suggest the second year of a baby boomlet, with U.S. fertility rates higher in every racial group, the highest among Hispanic women. On average, a woman has 2.1 babies in her lifetime. That’s the ‘magic number’ required for population to replace itself.” The numbers were compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Comparably, the population of the U.S. in 1957 was about 172 million vs. today’s 306 million.

OLDER AMERICANS

To assist those celebrating May as Senior Citizens Month, the U.S. Census Bureau prepared a press release with the following information:

• 37.9 million – The number of people 65 and older in the U.S. on July 1, 2007. This age group accounted for 13 percent of the total population.
• 88.5 million – Projected population of people 65 and older in 2050. People in this age group would comprise 20 percent of the total population at that time.
• 518 million – Projected 2009 mid-year world population 65 and older.

INFRASTRUCTURE BACKLOG

Parade Magazine ran a major cover story by Earl Swift in early March titled “How We Can Save Our Roads” which focused on how states will use the more than $30 billion that will be made available by the federal government in the next 18 months to restore America’s bridges and highways. An essential part of the text focused on the fact that even planning 25 years out, construction crews will be in an ongoing race with population growth to keep pace. The challenge is formidable and the expenses are mind-blowing. In short, the stimulus money is truly just a drop in the bucket against what’s needed. Swift’s text notes: “The result is a nationwide backlog of critical repairs and reconstructions. The price tag is astronomical. One federal study suggests that the U.S. should spend $225 billion a year for the next 50 years to rehabilitate its surface transportation. We’re currently spending just 40% of that – in a country that does 96% of its traveling on land by car and light truck.”

100 SPONSORS FOR ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

It didn’t take long for U.S. English, Inc. to garner a sizeable number of co-sponsors for H.R. 997, legislation to make English the official language of the United States. According to a recent press release, Congressman Mike McIntyre (R, NC) became the 100th member of Congress to sign onto the legislation. To date, the bi-partisan co-sponsors come from 35 states. McIntyre’s actions on March 9th marked the earliest an official English bill has reached the 100 co-sponsor mark this decade. NPG applauds U.S. English for their efforts and we agree that our leaders must finally adopt an official language for the United States.

LATINOS AND THE CENSUS

During an interview with President Obama, Pedro Secvec, an anchorman with the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo noted, “…our network, Telemundo, is starting a big campaign for Hispanics to make sure that they are counted in the next census. A lot of them are afraid, you know, of participating, because they think, ‘I don’t have the papers to live in this country.’” President Obama “responded by encouraging Latinos to participate and saying it has been ‘true historically’ that such information has not been shared with immigration authorities.” At NPG, we find it very unsettling that our president would knowingly encourage illegal immigrants to participate in ANY activity, particularly an election process.

LOSING THE LAND

A recent story in the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer on farmland being “lost” to population growth elicited this blog:

“Oops, there went Sampson County. That, it turns out, is a handy way of picturing all the farmland that North Carolina has lost in recent years. ‘Lost?’ We know where it is – it’s just not being used any more to grow food and fiber.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that farmland in the state shrank from 9.1 million acres in 2002 to 8.5 million acres in 2007. Says State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler: ‘To put 600,000 acres in perspective, it’s like taking Sampson County off the map.’ That’s a lot of territory…

…Farmland may fall out of production because it can’t be profitably worked. In the Triangle, the more typical reason is that the land is sold off for development. Every lost acre is one not available to meet our needs for agricultural products. As open space disappears, there also are adverse effects on the natural environment. The trend must be slowed – crops cannot be made in fields of asphalt.”

NPG NOTES

NPG CONGRESSIONAL PETITIONS

The immigration issue may not be in the headlines as much these days but it is very much on the minds of NPG members across the nation.

Our February mailing that went to thousands of our members had a call to action to “Demand that the 111th Congress Listen to the American People Regarding Illegal Immigration” and we have been very pleased with the steady flow of signed petitions to Senators and Congressmen that are arriving in our office daily.

The good news is that NPG members stand as united as ever in demanding “No Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants” and they are not afraid to speak out and remind their members of Congress that while the pro-immigration lobby has a lot of money and clout – and the national media pushing their agenda – it is incumbent on elected leaders to listen to their constituents on critical issues such as immigration where the decisions made today will have huge implications for the future of our nation.

If you have yet to return your petitions, please do so soon -- and hopefully include a contribution to help us prevail in this fight. We will be sending petitions on to the individual offices on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks.

NEW NPG FORUM PAPER

We are now beginning to distribute the latest NPG Forum Paper prepared by our renowned researcher Lindsey Grant. The paper, titled “Population Policy for a Depression” will be sent to Members of Congress, the national media and NPG active members and others who support NPG’s efforts to halt and reverse today’s spiraling population numbers.

The thesis of the paper is that population and immigration issues are tied to many of the same issues that are in the forefront of our efforts to turn around America’s economy and these problems should be addressed concurrently. Grant does an admirable job in making the connections. He also holds out hope that President Obama

(though presumably committed to reform measures that may legalize many illegal immigrants) “recognizes the problems that mass immigration causes for his efforts to address the present crisis and the country’s long-term future.”

In the paper’s concluding paragraphs, Grant states:

“ Nevertheless, this worst of times may be the best of times to address immigration and population issues that have been swept out of sight for decades. The public mood is clear, and not lightly ignored. Those who still have jobs are afraid for them. Those who don’t are getting desperate. Historically, immigration and U.S. fertility have tended to go down in difficult times. There are fewer jobs beckoning immigrants in a Depression….It’s a good time, finally, to do something about our demographic future.”

The full text of “Population Policy for a Depression” is available at our website www.npg.org.

ONLY A FEW WEEKS UNTIL NPG STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP LETTERS ARE DUE

April 24th is the due date for high school seniors and undergraduate college students who wish to compete for one of NPG’s 4th Annual Student Scholarships to get their letters in. This year’s competition challenges participants to write an insightful letter addressed to our nation’s elected leaders (Members of Congress) outlining the need for them to address the critical issue of population growth before it is too late. At stake are college scholarships for $2,000, $1,000 and $500, and the winners will be announced in August.

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

NPG has been actively looking to see how we can take our message about the vital need for a sustainable population and a better quality of life to today’s students who will have to live with the consequences of wrong immigration and population decisions made today. We are pleased to give some credit for this idea to Kristin Schultes of Grosse Point, MI, whose 2008 NPG Scholarship entry contained the following:

“Schools should also be encouraged to have representatives from Negative Population Growth (NPG) visit classrooms and talk about their goals and initiatives toward a more sustainable population level. The creation of a Junior Membership program, where High School students can organize speakers, newsletters, and educational programs for other classmates to learn about environmental sustainability, healthy immigration levels, and how they can advocate negative population growth is another means of enlightening today’s younger generation. By directly addressing key issues through the public school system and involving America’s youth in the effort, it increases the likelihood of young people practicing more sustainable lifestyles and population growth patterns as adults.”

QUOTABLE

“We have to have a change in policy and practice and again…I can’t say enough, the [immigration] raids must end. The raids must end.

You are very special people. You’re here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country’s future. That makes you very patriotic.”

Nancy Pelosi
Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
Condemning ICE raids before a group
of legal and illegal immigrants in San Francisco

“America has been good for immigrants and immigrants have been good for America, but over the past several decades immigration policy has become confused and unfocused. Our current policies are not working. Illegal immigrants are straining federal and state budgets. Local social services find it hard to meet growing needs. Gaping holes in our southern border aggravate this problem and create numerous other security risks while doing nothing for U.S. employers who are looking for a better solution to our labor shortages.”

Jena Baker McNeill
James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
“Fixing Border Security and Immigration”
The Heritage Foundation

“The turmoil is, however, taking a toll on Arizona, which has a 370-mile border with Mexico. Terry Goddard, Arizona’s attorney general, says this is a ‘transit state’ not a destination state. Phoenix is a distribution center for smuggled drugs destined for more than 230 American cities, and for people. Each commodity is stashed in different “drop houses.” The people are kept in what Goddard calls “cattle-car conditions.” He says that although a million people a year are moving north through Arizona, it is still a seller’s market for traffickers in human beings.”

George Will
National Columnist
Writing on rising crime in Mexico

“It was once said that, ‘Civilization was built on nine inches of topsoil.’ What happens when those nine inches are gone? Will civilized culture disappear? Those nine inches of usable topsoil have sustained human life for over ten thousand years, but recently (since the 1800’s) the booming U.S. population has cut them in half. If the number of people in this country continues to grow at such an alarming rate, a large catastrophe is imminent. Hindsight is always 20/20, but it is important for America to get its ‘vision’ fixed now, and avoid future disasters by limiting the population.”

Peter Sobiech, Riverside IL
2007 NPG Scholarship Entry

“In the energy field, for example, Obama wants to double in three years the portion of electric power produced with renewable sources like wind, water and solar. But only 8.4 of the nation’s electric power comes from such sources now, and the Energy Department estimates that getting to 12.6 percent will take two decades. Meanwhile, electric power demand will almost double during that same period.”

The Washington Examiner
Editorial

WHY THE NPG JOURNAL?

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The NPG Journal (offered free to all recipients) exists to give more widespread distribution to timely news stories and articles related to population, immigration, environmental and political issues that currently affect our daily life -- or have the potential to seriously impact our future.

We realize not all news stories covering population issues will reflect NPG policies and goals. One of our main purposes in creating the NPG Journal is to expose these items to a wider audience, and to draw attention to the fact that so many articles speak to immigration and population issues but often fail to address the central cause of many problems – TOO MANY PEOPLE.

Ultimately, NPG would like to see writers at all levels make the obvious (to us, at least) connection between environmental and resource problems and the growing number of people in both the United States and the world. Unfortunately, most do not. To that end, we comment as necessary to help our readers see those links in hopes they will continue to speak out on what we deem to be the most pressing issue of our time – population size and growth.

NPG President Donald Mann offers his personal insight and commentary on individual stories, especially those that challenge, confirm and/or complement our NPG Research and Forum Papers. The goal of the NPG Journal is to greatly expand NPG’s educational mission. NPG’s activities continue to emphasize the need for Americans to speak up on population issues and keep our nation – especially our elected leaders on the national, state and local level – focused on taking action to help resolve today’s immigration crisis and work to halt, and eventually reverse America’s out-of-control population growth.

We welcome your feedback to articles posted on the NPG Journal and urge you to forward us the e-mail address of friends you think would like to receive a complimentary copy of the NPG Journal on a bi-weekly basis. Contact us at www.npg.org.

 

ABOUT NPG:

Negative Population Growth, Inc. (NPG) is a national nonprofit membership organization with over 30,000 members nationwide. It was founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the devastating effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources, and standard of living. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.