New Directory on Fracking

EarthDirectory's newest directory is The World Directory of Anti-Fracking & Fracking Safety Organizations and Related Sites.  Check it out at www.earthdirectory.net/frack.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Maggie Thatcher's Speech to the UN in 1989 Urging Action on Global Warming

For those of you that still don't believe in human-caused global warming and climate change, you might read Margaret Thatcher's environmental speech made to the United Nations in 1989.  At that time she had access to some of the best scientists in the world and in her speech she emphasized the problem of global warming and the need for action way back in the late 1980's.  Her speech can be read at www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107817.

New Directory on Fusion Energy

EarthDirectory's newest directory is The World Directory of Fusion Energy Organizations and Related Sites.  Fusion energy is still in the research stage, but if it's ever perfected it promises to have many advantages which include no air pollution emissions, no greenhouse gas production, no long-lived radioactive waste, no chance of a runaway reaction leading to a meltdown, and a virtually unlimited fuel supply.

Two Questions to Ask Proponents of Mass Immigration -- They Won't Have Good Answers! Democrats for Reasonable and Responsible Immigration (DRRI), Part 10

First question:  Can you tell me what approximate population levels your mass immigration proposals will lead to?  (For example, what will the total population of the USA be in 2050 if your proposals are adopted?)  He or she probably either won't know the answer or if they know the answer they won't want to tell you the answer.

Second Question:  Can you guarantee that there will be enough resources available to provide at least a middle class life for everyone in the USA if your particular mass immigration proposals are carried out? He or she will not have an adequate answer for you.

*Note:  I'm not talking about the "Pathway to Citizenship" people here - they've already immigrated to the USA!  I'm talking about future immigration.

Just as it Took Republicans to Open the Door to China, It Will take Democrats to End the Mass Immigration Juggernaut, DRRI Part 9

Today I was listening to Jeb Bush's speech of March 8th at the Reagan Library & Museum in which he  proposed to admit 1 million high-tech workers as permanent residents to the USA each year and this proposal alone would raise the annual  population increase of the USA to over 3 million total per year.  If you add in all the other proposals of the different interest groups trying to increase immigration of permanent residents via any new immigration law, we're then looking at an annual potential population increase of possibly 4 million or more per year in the USA.  This puts us on track to reach one billion people in the USA sometime around the beginning decades of the next century and almost certainly puts us well over 1/2 billion before the beginning of the next century.

It's time to get real and get a grasp on our mass immigration problem.  Republicans are not going to fix the problem, so it's up to Democrats and other progressives to take charge of the situation, especially ecologists, geographers and other scientists and environmentalists who know darn well that the USA is already probably past its long-term sustainable population, if we want to continue with something resembling the current American standard of living for the foreseeable future.  Just as Republicans were viewed as the more anti-communist party and thus had to be the party opening the door to communist China, the Democrats who are generally viewed as the party more supportive of mass immigration will have to be the party leading the way to ending mass immigration into the USA.

Assuming that some kind of "pathway to citizenship" is passed into law, it's important that after the "pathway" people and the people currently in the pipeline for permanent residency and citizenship are processed, we then adopt an immigration level with a yearly average of a few hundred thousand people per year.

Please write your congressperson, senators and the President and urge them to work towards a long-term goal of an annual immigration rate into the USA of an average of a few hundred thousand people per year in order to keep the population under half a billion by the year 2100.  This goal should be incorporated into any new immigration bill. 

Yes, the time frame that we're looking at here is the lifetime of many of today's toddlers!  We can either work towards a peak population of somewhere around 1/2 billion before the year 2100 or else we'll face the nightmare of a population possibly approaching 1 billion (and rising) around the year 2100.


Editor's update 4/11/2013:  See Democrats for Reasonable and Responsible Immigration for organized links to additional blog posts and for additional information.

Punish the "Illegal Employers" Not the Struggling Undocumented & Unauthorized Immigrant Workers, DRRI Part 8

As the Congress crafts a new bill regarding immigration, it's very important that any new law include severe punishments for "illegal employers."  Leave the undocumented immigrant workers alone if they're otherwise law-abiding -- they've got enough problems already. By cracking down on the illegal employers and making a few showcase examples of some of the worst cases that may also include mistreatment of undocumented workers, the problem of undocumented and unauthorized immigrants in the United States can be greatly diminished.  Accurate verification & appeal procedures can be continually improved to protect employers trying not to break the law and to protect employment rights for authorized workers.

Illegal employers can no longer be accepted as respected members of society, but instead must be shown to the public as the criminals that they actually are.  Their actions are hurting the environmental security of the USA by promoting over-immigration and thus over-population that threatens the long-term sustainability of the USA. Their illegal actions also serve to make a mockery of the attempts of American workers to raise base wage levels to decent amounts that provide hope of a middle class life for all workers in the USA.

Once it's made abundantly clear to all American employers that illegal employers will be severely punished, mostly by very high fines, but occasionally with a few of them actually being sent to prison, the problem will be on its way towards being solved.  The undocumented workers will either leave the United States to find work elsewhere or will eventually become authorized workers within the USA.  Employers will know that hiring unauthorized workers is a crime that will no longer be tolerated and that they will be considered to be common criminals if they engage in illegal hiring practices.

There can no longer be a wink and a nod between politicians and illegal employers.  Please contact your U. S. Representative & Senators and the President and demand severe punishments for illegal employers in any new immigration bill.  

The promotion of mass immigration by many American employers trying to get both "low-skilled" and high skilled workers into the country represents a real over-population threat to the United States. If these employers are allowed to have their way along with the other proponents of mass immigration, the population of the USA could go over 1 billion people within the first decades of the next century, during the lifetimes of many of today's American toddlers.

It's important that Americans also urge Congress and the President to lower the yearly permanent immigration rate from over 1 million to a few hundred thousand people per year, after we get the "Pathway to Citizenship" people and other current citizenship applicants processed,  in order to keep the population level of the USA under half a billion people by the year 2100.    

A Video Showing 131 Years of Global Warming in 26 Seconds

This video was created by NASA and shows 131 years of global warming.

Mass Immigration will destroy the American Dream - Support Moderate Immigration Instead, Democrats for Reasonable and Responsible Immigration (DRRI), Part 7

The United States with under 5% of the world's population at approximately 315 million official residents is estimated to be using 25% to 30% of the world's resources.  Population projections and trends indicate that the U.S. population could go over 1 billion people by the beginning of the next century - within the lifetimes of many of today's American toddlers (See U. S. Census Population Projections[pdf] and the previous post of this blog).  This especially appears to be the case when you include the many millions of unofficial permanent residents who did their best not to be included in the latest census, which means that the real population of the USA is probably well over 320 million.

Clearly the math of the situation doesn't add up to a happy conclusion if the population of the USA rises to one billion:  1. There is no way that resources per person in the USA can stay up at the current high levels with an American population of anywhere near 1 billion people.  2. It is immoral on a planetary basis for the people of the USA to let their population total increase much further as long as Americans strive to have such a high percentage of world resource usage.

Please write your senators, representative and the President now and tell them to stop supporting mass immigration levels of a million or more permanent immigrants per year (see page 10 of 2011 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics[pdf]) and instead to support an average of no more than 2 to 5 hundred thousand new permanent immigrants per year, an amount that should allow us to keep the country's population under half a billion people by the beginning of 2100.  Despite recent reports on the media to the contrary, the population of the USA is continuing to increase at an alarming rate and there are powerful political interests working to increase yearly immigration levels and the population growth rate of the country.

An Article about the Population of the USA Reaching 1 Billion, Democrats for Reasonable & Responsible Immigration, Part 6

I finally found an article that covers the fact that the population level of the USA is trending towards one billion people by the first part of the next century. The article was written in 2008 but is still just as relevant today as it was four years ago. You can see the article by clicking here: "Expert: US Population to Hit 1 Billion by 2100".

The article is the first article that I've seen about an academic willing to discuss the "politically incorrect" population figure of one billion, so my hat goes off to Arthur C. Nelson for having the guts to actually bring up the one billion population figure. You can see in the article how his colleague immediately starts trying to discredit the population projection of one billion because almost all academics don't want to discuss the direction that our population growth curve is taking us by the year 2100.  They're afraid to discuss the topic of mass immigration into the United States because saying anything against it would be politically incorrect on nearly all American college and university campuses.  

Unfortunately, the article didn't go into the possibility of actually lowering the U.S. immigration levels so that the U.S. population can be prevented from ever getting anywhere near one billion. A population of one billion people in the U.S. is not inevitable because we have the power to democratically lower the immigration levels of the U.S. by putting pressure on the Congress and the Executive Branch to lower the yearly number of permanent immigrants allowed into our country.

The population projections of the U.S. Census Bureau clearly show that we are trending towards the one billion figure, especially when you add in the several million (or more) people who did their best to not be included in the most recent census and thus are not included in the current official population figures. You can see the U.S.Census Bureau's projections here[pdf] and the current official U.S. population here. Incidentally, as I forewarned in my April 2nd post of this year, the Census Bureau has now apparently removed the above projections from its website and so I'm posting the projections on my network.

With the decimation of the environmentalist/conservationist faction of the Republican Party it's up to the Democratic Party with it's strong and vibrant environmentalist/conservation wing to fight for sustainable population levels in the U.S. and to develop policies and programs that will bring about those levels. Despite the anti-immigrant faction of the Republican Party, the more dominant wealthy, plutocratic faction of the Republican Party will continue to force the party to support mass immigration levels (over 1 million new permanent immigrants per year) in order to have an overabundance of workers in the country to always keep wage and salaries lower than they would be with a smaller number of workers. Conversely, Democrats understand the importance of avoiding the existence of an over-sized labor force that has no power to bid up its wages and salaries.

Most Americans from all the different economic levels and ethnic groups, when told that the U.S. population is heading towards over 1 billion people which is a number of people similar to the current population levels of China and India, will instinctively say "Oh, that's too many people!" Yet our national immigration policy supporting mass immigration does not correspond to this view. There is a definite disconnect between the opinion of the majority of the American people and the immigration policies of the United States government. Any environmentalist, ecologist or biologist worth his or her salt will tell you that a billion people in the U.S. is too many people if we want to keep a standard of living in 2100 that resembles the current American lifestyle.

You may be one of the individuals that thinks "Who cares how many people come to the U.S., there's plenty of space for more people!" I'll give you just two of the many reasons why you should be concerned about population growth in our country: 1. You've probably noticed how difficult it is for the U.S. to become energy independent with our current official population of over 314 million. Imagine how difficult it will be to become energy independent with another three to four times as many people in the country. 2. We already have severe water shortages in the Southwestern part of the U.S. - just imagine the water problems in the Southwest when it has a population of three to four times as many people as are currently living there.

It's critical that we adopt long-term policies supporting moderate immigration levels of a few hundred thousand people per year rather than our current mass immigration levels of over 1 million per year. If, after getting the "Pathway to Citizenship" people through the system, we can quickly establish immigration levels of a few hundred thousand permanent new immigrants per year, we should be able to keep the U.S. population well under 1/2 billion people by the year 2100.

Video of a Wind Storm in Montana

This video shows the winds of a windstorm that lasted more than 8 hours that I was in on July 26th that had winds of approximately 70 mph with some gusts reported of over 100 mph.  After the first hour the windstorm was no longer fun and got really irritating!

The Environmental Directory of Egypt

I'm pleased to announce the newest directory in the EarthDirectory Network which covers the environment and conservation in Egypt.  It can be viewed at www.earthdirectory.net/egypt.htm.

New Pakistan Environmental Directory

EarthDirectory's newest directory is an environmental directory of Pakistan.  Check it out at www.earthdirectory.net/pakistan.htm.

China Directory Updated and New Directory of Food Safety Organizations

EarthDirectory's China environmental directory has just been completely updated and you can see it at www.earthdirectory.net/china.htm.  Also, EarthDirectory's new directory of food safety organizations is now on the the Internet and can be viewed at www.earthdirectory.net/food.

Democrats for Reasonable & Responsible Immigration (DRRI), Part 5 - Some Interesting British Articles on Mass Immigration

Recently I came upon some interesting articles written by British guys covering some of the issues involved with mass immigration.  These articles are excellent for defining some of the major issues of mass immigration and why some people on both the left and right support mass immigration.

The first article is entitled How Did Opening Borders to Mass Immigration become a Left-wing Idea?" and is written by Ed West of The Telegraph.  The article discusses how mass immigration is viewed by the economic elite of society as beneficial, and why it's not beneficial for the working class.

The second article is now a classic on debunking the myths of mass immigration.  It was written in 2003 by Anthony Browne in OpenDemocracy.  The article is entitled The Folly of Mass Immigration.  While it's a great article for countering the arguments in favor of mass immigration, I wince at the sections where he implies that the U.S, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were basically empty before European settlement and are now still capable of absorbing mass immigration.

Democrats for Reasonable & Responsible Immigration (DRRI), Part 4 - Progressives: Stand Up for Moderate Immigration, Not Mass Immigration!

The United States can have a responsible and reasonable immigration policy of allowing hundreds of thousands of permanent immigrants into the country every year.  We just can't continue our current policy of allowing a combined total of well over a million permanent legal & permanent unauthorized immigrants into the country each year - that kind of yearly mass immigration will lead towards a U.S. population level that could surpass one billion people by sometime in the beginning decades of the next century -- that will be too many people for a country that consumes a very disproportionate amount of the world's resources.  Some of us already believe that the USA is well above a population level that is sustainable for the long-term future at the current American standard of living.

The Department of Homeland Security's most recent available statistics show 1,062,040 new legal permanent residents in 2011 and 694,193 new American Citizens in 2011.  See: DHS Immigration Statistics.  Nobody seems to know the precise number of net new yearly permanent unauthorized immigrants, but the Pew Hispanic Center estimated the total number of unauthorized immigrants in the USA at the beginning of 2011 to be 11.2 million.  See: PEW report.   

What would be a reasonable number to have as our official level of yearly permanent immigration?  According to the Population Reference Bureau's most recent estimate, for 2009, the USA had approximately 328,000 emmigrants (migrants leaving the USA).  See: PRB's figures.  That would be a reasonable number to start at for new yearly permanent immigrants to the USA.  At that level, the U.S. population will still increase due to our current demographic situation, but it might allow the country's population to be at a level near half a billion by the year 2100, rather than over 1 billion.  Environmental groups in the U.S. traditionally supported an immigration level of approximately 300,000 per year, before the honorable opposition (the mass immigration movement) made it politically incorrect for American environmental organizations to take a stand on U.S. immigration.


Editor's note (4/5/12):  The above "armchair" population projection includes allowing the people already in the immigration pipeline to become citizens at the current immigration rates and allowing the people in the "pathway to citizenship" to become citizens at the current immigration rates.  It's for the people not already in the pipeline that the immigration and permanent resident acceptance numbers would be greatly reduced.  Also, the national population increase rate is very fluid and can be decreased further, or even turned around altogether, by a combination of factors such as increased rates of emmigration from the USA, an even greater decrease in the American birthrate and, of course, a decrease in the number of immigrants and permanent residents accepted into the U.S.