Immigration's Impact on the Environment

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Mar 16, 2010, 08:03 ET

WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Progressives for Immigration Reform has released its newest policy brief: "From Big to Bigger, How Mass Immigration and Population Growth Have Exacerbated America's Ecological Footprint." The publication was authored by Leon Kolankiewicz, a wildlife biologist and consulting environmental planner. The study examines the impact that America's uncontrolled growth and high immigration levels are having on the country's ecological footprint and provides scientific evidence for why America is exhausting its natural capital. The article reveals that the United States has the third-highest ecological footprint in the world, exceeded only by two small Middle Eastern oil producing countries.

Among the article's key findings:

Ecological Footprint (or EF) is a measure of the aggregate human demands imposed on the environment.
Scientists use the EF analysis to compare and contrast a given country or region's resource consumption with the earth's natural capacity for renewal and regeneration of those same resources.
Even as the United States' aggregate EF continues to increase, the earth's biocapacity is decreasing simultaneously.
If current growth trends continue, U.S. population will increase 43% by 2050, and 82 percent of that growth will result from immigration.

"America is living well beyond its ecological means and rapid population growth driven primarily by high immigration levels is aggravating the country's ecological deficit," says Leon Kolankiewicz. "If environmentalists are serious about facing the challenge of environmental sustainability, they must begin to address the threat of unsustainable U.S. population growth."

This publication can be accessed at: http://www.progressivesforimmigrationreform.org/2010/03/05/from-big-to-bigger-how-mass-immigration-and-population-growth-have-exacerbated-americas-ecological-footprint/. Hard copies are available upon request.

SOURCE Progressives for Immigration Reform