Census 2010 Exposes Grave Threats to American’s Quality of Life

The 2010 Census, released yesterday, represents grave news for environmentalists and all Americans who want to protect their quality of life. The nation’s current population of 308, 745,538 reflects a smaller growth rate (9.7 percent) than the percentage increase from 1990 through 2000. But the raw numerical rise of 27,323, 632 total residents represents unsustainable levels of growth.

Most demographic experts place the United States’ optimal population at less than half its current total, roughly 150 million.

Every one of the new additional arrivals is a consumer of scarce natural resources. The states that experienced the greatest growth like California (10 percent), Arizona (25 percent) and Nevada (35 percent), are already struggling with acute water shortages. If, as the Census projects, the United States adds 30 million more people each decade, expect severe water rationing policies even in locations normally considered “wet” like Long Island and South Florida.

What’s most frustrating to the concerned is that the major driving force behind increased population is the most taboo subject in the mainstream media and on Capitol Hill: federal immigration policy.

Instead of enlightening readers about the ecological consequences over-immigration, the media buries the subject.

Furthermore, during the last decade, the federal government has introduced several comprehensive immigration reform amnesties without ever discussing how that legislation, had it passed, could have promoted more immigration.

Similarly, the effect of issuing more non-immigrant visas to recipients who adjust their status and eventually become legal permanent residents goes unchallenged by legislators and the media.

Immigration and births to immigrant women are the two largest contributors to population growth. According to the Census, 13.1 million legal and illegal immigrants settled in the United States in the last ten years. During the same period, immigrant women gave birth to about 8.2 million children. Added together, immigrants and their children account for three-quarters of the nation’s population growth since 2000.

Unless the government drastically cuts back on the numbers of immigrants it allows into the United States, the nation’s population total will continue to soar; by 2100, it will reach over 550 million.

Unchecked population growth adversely effects California more than any other state. Since California is America’s agricultural breadbasket, continued growth translates to lost productive land that will eventually cause all Americans to suffer. About 8 million acres in California are used for agricultural purposes. But each year approximately 125,000 acres are paved over by sprawl. Each additional person added to California’s population base uses approximately 1 acre of land for urbanization and highways.

Based on current Census projections, California’s 2035 population will be will be nearly 60 million. Agriculture’s future as well as that of arable land, clean water, energy and biodiversity will be threatened as land is lost to urban sprawl to build roads, hospitals and schools.

Analysts calculate that at the current pace of 30 million residents added each decade, taxpayers will have to fund and build 8,000 new schools, develop 11.5 million housing units and develop enough roads to accommodate additional 24 million vehicles.

For all the gratuitous talk about “going green,” policy makers ignore the ultimate “green,” fewer people.

America needs a federal population policy led by an ecologically aware government and activist citizens who value land not as a tool for commercial profit but instead allow it to remain in its natural state for the collective societal good.

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1990. He is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns have frequently been syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. He can be reached at [email protected].