India Environmental Directory Updated

Last week The Directory of Environmental Organizations & Environmental Government Agencies in India was completely updated.  Check it out at http://www.earthdirectory.net/India.htm. Interestingly, India has the second highest viewership of The EarthDirectory.Net Network after the USA.

Defeat Fracking in the Northeast Gateway Region to Yellowstone National Park

Shepherd Mountain in The Beartooth Front Range (Click on photo to enlarge it)

The greed of the frackers is insatiable.  Now they want to frack in the Red Lodge Montana region, a stunningly beautiful ranching and tourism area along the front range of the Beartooth Mountains.

The rolling prairie runs into the mountains at the town of Red Lodge with the tallest mountains of Montana dynamically rising in the distance, and when you take the very scenic ride on the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge over the Beartooth Mountains, you end up at the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park!  Besides that, the region has some of the best trout streams in the world.  The Red Lodge area along with the rest of the Beartooth Front is a very special region and should be entirely off-limits to fracking.

To sign the petition and to donate to the campaign to defeat fracking along the Beartooth Front please click HERE.  And of course, contact all of the relevant politicians that you can think of and tell them "No to fracking on the Beartooth Front!"  Let's show all of the frackers around the world that there are some places where they just won't be allowed to frack.

Editor's Update 4/18/2014: See my latest blog post about fracking on the Beartooth Front HERE.  

New Bicycle Job Directory

EarthDirectory's newest directory lists jobs in the  bicycle industry: www.earthdirectory.net/bikejobs.htm.  For other green jobs see EarthDirectory's Environmental Job Blog: http://envirojob.blogspot.com. 

A Call to all Democrats, Environmentalists, Ecologists & Everyone Else to Not Support the Immigration Bill - DRRI Part 11

It's time to give up on the immigration bill and to start over and write a new one.  Originally Americans thought that it would be a bill to provide a fair "Pathway to Citizenship" for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the USA while simultaneously fixing our broken immigration system.  Instead it's turned into a grab bag of wish lists for the mass immigration lobby with its amazing variety of proponents - apparently they think that this is their big chance to cram all of their misguided proposals through and to give out American citizenships like Halloween candy.

Many Republicans, and some Democrats, support the immigration bill because they want to import both high-skilled and so called low-skilled workers rather then pay for training American citizens for the high-skilled jobs and paying a decent wage to American citizens for doing the so called low-skilled work.  Meanwhile, the "guilty liberal" faction of the Democratic Party supports an open borders policy basically because they feel guilty for American dominance of the late 20th century and for what they perceive as America's historic misdeeds in the world and they believe that letting in the people of the world is a way of making up for the USA's past transgressions.  Another faction of the Democratic Party is the mass immigration faction which, while not supporting completely open borders, supports mass immigration (millions of permanent immigrants per year) for a variety of reasons including those listed above.  All of these factions are misguided.

Reliable data indicates that within the next ten years the immigration bill in its current form could result in as many as 50 million permanent and "temporary" immigrants, which would include approximately 34 million permanent residents & citizens.  Add this to the nearly 1.5 million natural yearly population increase already existing in the USA and you come up with a yearly population increase of somewhere around 4 to 5 million per year.  This puts us clearly on the path to over 1 billion people in the USA by the year 2100.  Yes, that's within the lifetime of today's toddlers.  See the Census Bureau's own population projections [pdf] or [txt], and when you figure in that we probably already have well over 320 million people when you include the millions of people who intentionally and unintentionally avoided being counted in the most recent census, you'll see that the high immigration levels proposed in the immigration law will put us right on the highest of the four population projections shown in the Census Bureau's projections.

We can have a Pathway to Citizenship and we can also bring in an average of 3 to 4 hundred thousand yearly permanent immigrants and still shoot for keeping our population from never going over half a billion.  Remember, the questions to ask the proponents of mass immigration are 1) How many permanent American residents will their proposals lead to and 2) Can the proponents of mass immigration guarantee that there will be enough resources available to Americans to provide all of the people in the United States with at least a middle class quality of life.

The immigration bill is irresponsible in that it would lead to an unacceptable increase of the population of the USA.  Most Americans intuitively realize that a billion people is way too many people for the United States.  It's time to scrap the immigration bill and to start a new one that includes a Pathway to Citizenship along with provisions that will give American citizens firm control of their borders along with enforceable and strong punishments for employers who illegally hire unauthorized workers in the future (let's not punish the unauthorized workers anymore - their lives are tough enough).

Contact your Senators, your Congressperson and the President and tell them that it's time to rewrite the immigration bill so that it doesn't put the environmental and economic sustainability of the United States at risk.

U. S. and World Population Clock

Democrats for Reasonable and Responsible Immigration (DRRI)        

       

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.