It's weird to think that immigration and the climate could have anything to do with each other but after reading this article it brought to light that they do. What we don't realize is with the population change and growth there comes a point when we have to nourish this population growth and give in to what these immigrants need. So what we fail to realize is that with the new increasing population we have to make new homes and new stores and places for these people to be cared for. Not only do we have all these immigrants coming in, but we also have the normal population growth of the United States. So if you think about all these millions of immigrants coming in every year to you have to think on a bigger scale of what it will be like in 50 years. "By 2050, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the United States will add 122 million new people, bringing its population to 440 million" (Holmes). 122 million new people means 122 million mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. Plus, all these people need transportation and shelter which means more buses, more cars, and more homes being built. If more and more places are being built to home these people then that means that land is being destroyed in order for society to fit all these millions and millions of people arriving. We can't afford to ruin anymore land then we already have and are currently destroying. So even though I personally hadn't connected immigration and population increase to climate, in the scheme of things I really do realize that these do coincide and affect one another.
But then the issue of who we let into the United States and who we force to stay out becomes a controversial topic because we don't want to deny anyone but we also have to look out for our own environment. Even with that said, unfortunately the topic of environmental preservation doesn't appear to be one of the top issues that the government appears to consider when dealing with immigration into the United States. Therefore, it appears that the only option that the public has to influence the effect of immigration and new population increase on the environment is to make it known. Again, this article really brought light to just how many influences the population increase has on climate because I've never deeply thought upon this idea even though I feel like it should be almost blatant.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/letters/Letter_to_the_editor__Environmentalists_ignore_impact_of_adding_people.html
Benjamin Holmes
It is amazing to see this chain reaction in play, but it's scary to think how one thing leads to another. I know that we have all done a lot of study on the issue of over population, but I didn't even consider the idea of over consumption with food, cloth, etc.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the issue with immigration is the people are overpopulating one area and that area is running out of supplies. It is hard to see the connection with immigration can have an effect on climate change because technically immigration isn't the addition of people in the world, but addition of people in an area.
ReplyDeleteWhen I did overpopulation, I kind of overlooked the topic of immigrations because I thought it was just moving resources to different areas. However, now that I've put more thought into it, I think it does affect the environment. There are many immigrants coming from developing countries that don't have as much land, transportation, and resources.
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