Albert A. Bartlett, Ph.D.,
Boulder, CO 80304-2719
Global warming is probably the most serious problem ever faced
by the human race.
If any fraction of the observed global warming can be attributed
to the action of humans
then this, by itself, is complete and convincing proof that the
human population of the Earth,
living as we do, has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth.
From this it follows that
all efforts at the local, national and global levels to solve
the problem of global warming
are serious intellectual frauds if they fail to address the fundamental
cause of the problem,
namely overpopulation. In other words, one can't solve a problem
unless one understands and
addresses the cause of the problem. Aspirin is not a cure for
cancer.
Because of our large per capita consumption of resources
and consequent large per capita
production of global warming greenhouse gases, the United States
is the world's worst per
capita offender in the production of greenhouse gases. Let's look
as some numbers.
In the Executive Summary of the report, "Anthropogenic
[human caused] Emissions of
Greenhouse Gases, 1990-2005" (DOE/EIA - 0573(2005)) we read
that the Estimated 2005 Emissions
of the U.S. add up to 7,147.2 million tons. The U.S. population
was recently reported to
have passed 300 million people. These numbers combine to indicate
that the emission of
greenhouse gases each year by each American is an average of 23.8
tons. Think of it; each
year each person in the United States is responsible, directly
or indirectly, for the
emission of 23.8 tons of greenhouse gases!
The population of the U.S. is increasing by something
over 3 million people a year. These
numbers combine to indicate that population growth each year in
the U.S. increases the U.S.
annual emission of greenhouse gases by about 71.4 million metric
tons. This is at a time
when the threat of global warming indicates that we should reduce
total annual U.S. emissions
of greenhouse gases!
How accurate are these figures? They may be too
large because there are suggestions that
the population of the U.S. is significantly larger than is given
by the Bureau of the Census.
They may be too low because we have exported many of our manufacturing
jobs to places such as
China where large quantities of greenhouse gases are emitted each
year to manufacture goods
for our consumption in the U.S.
The implied relationship between population growth
and growth in the emission of
greenhouse gases is supported by the DOE/EIA report summary which
indicates that from 1990 to
2005, the annual emission of greenhouse gases grew by an average
of 1% per year. In this
same period, the population of the U.S. grew by an average of
about 1% per year.
So, if we are serious about reduction of U.S. emission
of greenhouse gases in the hope of
slowing or stopping global warming, then it is imperative that
the first thing we do is to
stop the U.S. population growth which is fueling the growth in
emission of greenhouse gases
from the U.S. We should require the filing of Environmental Impact
Statements for all
existing governmental programs that add people to the U.S. population,
and we should require
environmental impact statements in advance for all proposed congressional
actions that will
add people to the U.S. population.
Immigration (most of it is legal) is estimated
to account for something like
three-quarters of the present annual increase in U.S. population.
If we wish to continue to
admit several million people a year, we should know that this
will, on the average, increase
U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 23.8 million metric
tons for each million people
admitted. This is an enormous handicap as we strive and sacrifice
to reduce our national
emissions of greenhouse gases.
It is hoped that people will not argue that these
estimates are high because immigrants tend
to be poor people and hence they will pollute less than the average
American. This argument
reeks of discrimination because it presumes that people admitted
will always be poor and will
always pollute less than average. It assumes that people admitted
can always be kept in
second-class status. Plainly and simply, that's un-American.
Sustainability is related to global warming. All
population growth, whether from births
exceeding deaths, or from immigration, legal or illegal, violates
the Laws of Sustainability;
(1) in particular it violates the First, Second and Seventh Laws.
1) Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption
of resources cannot be
sustained.
2) The larger the population and/or the larger the rate of consumption
of resources, the more
difficult it will be to transform the population to the condition
of sustainability.
Immigration violates the Seventh Law:
7) A society which has to import people to do its daily work
("We can't find Americans who will do the work.") is
not sustainable.
From the point of view of sustainability, it is COMPLETELY
counterproductive to be exporting jobs and importing people.
If we are serious about global warming and about
sustainability, it is essential that we
do everything possible to halt U.S. population growth quickly.
The largest contributor by
far to U.S. population growth is immigration, legal and illegal.
REFERENCE
1) Marco Keiner, Editor, "The Future of Sustainability,"
Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (2006). Essay by A.A. Bartlett,
Pgs. 17-37
