Sustaining White America: Population, Environment, and Immigration
Ever since John Tanton launched FAIR three decades ago, the anti-immigrant movement has used population growth and its environment impacts to advance specious arguments for its restrictionist agenda. The Center 
for Immigration Studies’ (CIS) latest report touting “The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration to the United States” marks another step in the movement’s ongoing attempts to lay environmental degradation on the backs of the wrong people.
The anti-immigrant movement is deeply rooted in the population control movement of the 1960s/70s—a movement that often wavered between its racially-tinged, eugenics edges and full-bore blame on overly-consumptive “Americans” (i.e., whites) for the environmental crisis of that era. Today the movement has resolutely staked its claim on those old, racially-tinged edges in a disingenuous move to lure environmentalists into its fold. By doing so it has completely abandoned assigning any responsibility for the contemporary environmental crisis on a still-wealthy nation that consumes some forty percent of the world’s resources, regardless of immigration levels. Read more
“Green” Fuel Has Human Cost
Governments and big business displacing landowners around the globe is nothing new. So it comes as no surprise that since 2005 there has been a resurgence of land theft in Colombia to make way for biofuel, and not so coincidentally, a re-mobilization of paramilitary groups.
BBC News covered the conflict in Colombia on June 3, exposing the human rights violations of the Colombian biofuel industry. An excerpt from the report states:
In rural areas, there is evidence that some people have been forcibly displaced to make way for biofuel production. Last year, the United Nations stopped its investment in the sector in Colombia. But while ethanol production in Brazil has been pored over by experts and activists, the challenges faced by Colombia remain relatively unexamined.
Inhabitants standing in the way of the biofuel industry are subject to paramilitaries arriving at their property and forcibly displacing them. Read more
CAPS Falsely Blames Immigrants for Environmental Problems
Environmentalists everywhere need to stand up against hate groups in America.
Californians For Population Stabilization (CAPS) is an anti-immigrant group that has been pushing its racist agenda on Californians for years now. They insist that immigrants are responsible for the “destruction of forests, national parks, and natural habitats….over-consumption of precious natural resources; deadly sewage on our beaches; continually expanding urban sprawl; and more.” Out of all of the bogus, bigoted ideas put forth by CAPS, this is by far the most ridiculous reason to hate on the immigrant community. Most recently CAPS released their “Nine Things to Talk About on Earth Day”, another attempt to position themselves as an organization that cares about the environment.
But that’s just it, CAPS isn’t really concerned about population or the environment. Just a few weeks ago Rick Oltman of CAPS was on FOX talking to Glenn Beck. Was he commenting on overpopulation or environmental issues? No, he was talking about President Obama’s sweet little old aunt who he thinks should be kicked out of the country. Read more
Op-Ed Highlight: Anti-Immigrant Groups Joining the Green Movement?
Eric Ward’s Earth Day op-ed for The Progressive delves into the little-known activity of anti-immigrant groups as they attempt to inject themselves into environmental agendas. Bigots trying to pass them themselves off as concerned environmentalist? Scary and shameful.
On Earth Day, the environmental movement in the United States must reject bigotry. It should not join hands with anti-immigrant groups. These groups are trying to infiltrate the environmental movement and coopt its message.
On Earth Day of all days, the environmental movement can’t let anti-immigrant groups divert us into a narrow ideological cause that reflects neither realism nor inclusiveness.
And environmental organizations cannot afford to remain silent in the face of a few anti-immigrant leaders who attempt to speak on their behalf.
Instead, as environmentalists, on Earth Day and every day, we should uphold a vision of sustainability characterized by cooperation, opportunity and equity.
Read more at http://www.progressive.org/mpward042109.html.
Eric Ward is the national field director for the Center for New Community, writes for the Web site Imagine 2050 and is a member of the Sierra Club. Read more“Greening” Again: The Anti-immigrant Movement’s Slide to Environmental Racism
“If we look at the conservation ethic of some of the countries from which large numbers of immigrants are coming, we don’t find the same sort of respect for the land and our fellow creatures that has developed here. We certainly don’t see this in many of the southeastern Asian cultures or in Latin America. They don’t have the same sort of conservation ethic we have here.”
-John Tanton, 1989
“And with every new U.S. resident, whether from births or immigration, comes further degradation of America’s natural treasures.”
-Ad for “America’s Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning,” 2008
Windmills. Water. Bulldozers. Gridlock. Sprawl. Appearing in the New York Times, the slick, quarter-page, info-ads reflect the nation’s deepening concern about energy and the environment, and invite the reader in to learn more—not about resource conservation, but about controlling immigration, the source of all ills.
There at the bottom of the ads, of course, are their sponsors—the stellar cast of America’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant movement. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) posts up at center, along with American Immigration Control Foundation, Californians for Population Stabilization, NumbersUSA, and Social Contract Press proclaiming to be “America’s Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning.” Read more
Seeds of Sustainability
Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza from Imagine 2050 on Vimeo.
Silvia Barretto and Marcos Croce are the owners of Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza - a progressive, organic farm located in Brazil, 4 hours north of Sao Paulo. The farm has been owned by Silvia’s family since the early 1900’s, and when she inherited it from her father, she decided to do things a little differently. Together with the workers they have converted the farm from a mono-cropped, chemically-fertilized coffee plantation to an environmentally diverse, organic farm. They still grow coffee (award-winning beans), but growing alongside are the native Atlantic rainforest trees, and the banana and mango trees, the blueberries, the salad greens…and the list goes on. Read more
Food Co-ops: Good for America
Food co-ops may be able to lead the way to a healthier, greener America, but first they must compete with capitalism and carve out a space in mainstream American consumerism.
Location is an important factor as they are essentially all the same save for the state laws governing their operation; in some places they flourish, in others they are barely able to survive. They usually share common characteristics including being democratic and volunteer-run businesses whose owners are the members of the co-op. Profits (if any) are shared among members, however most food co-ops are aiming to provide affordable natural foods to their members or community rather than turn a profit. In New York, Minneapolis, California and Oregon food co-ops have brought major change to their communities by providing healthier, socially conscious, and sustainable ways to shop. Often though, food co-ops don’t get started in the neighborhoods that desperately need affordable grocery stores with natural or organic products. Read more
Greenwashing Your Garbage
By Brian O’Quinn
With the growing awareness of our negative impact on the environment, many find peace of mind in consuming recyclable and biodegradable products. Whether picking up dog poop in a corn-resin, biodegradable bag or buying an iced latte in a plastic cup, bound for the recycling bin, you may begin to view trash as something sustainable.
Reduce, reuse, recycle! This EPA slogan describes the hierarchy of importance in responsible waste management. Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to throw your “recyclable” waste into a bin than it is to reduce your consumption or go out of your way to wash and reuse. Some people may save plastic grocery bags and feel good about “reusing” them to fill with more trash, but I seldom observe people going out of their way to reuse anything. Recycling, the least effective method of waste stream reduction, is inevitably the most convenient in a culture where convenience is king. Read more
Green Burials: Wave of the Past and Future?
In the last 130 years, death rituals in North America have changed dramatically. It wasn’t until the civil war, when soldiers died far from their homes, that our modern-day preservation methods began to take hold. Prior to the war, people used to die at home, leaving their families to prepare the bodies. The deceased were then observed in a parlor and buried in a cemetery and sometimes in their family’s backyard. With the need for preservation, undertakers went from box makers, to box makers plus hole diggers, to a ritual directors, and now they dictate the entire burial procedure. Read more
Salmonella Outbreak Spotlights Unhealthy Plant Conditions
Two weeks ago I had the stomach flu. Without disclosing the details, I’ll just say it was awful, and the fever and aches kept me incapacitated for two days after the worst was over. Read more
Obama and the Environment
I looked over the Energy Plan at barackobama.com today, and I can’t help but feel hot and cold about it.
His plan unquestionably aims to give assistance to middle class and low income households, which is certainly imperative at this point in time….and a exhilarating change from the current administration. However, being someone who is legitimately concerned for the environment, I have to put my foot down and say that his plan does not dis-include practices that may be highly detrimental to this planet, and contains propositions calling for relatively unsustainable energy procurement and management. The following is my summary of his Energy Plan, approached and illuminated by the way of an ecological eye… and with commentary, of course. Read more
Aging Farmers in America
Farmers in America are getting older, and younger Americans are not filling in their ranks. The USDA releases the census of agriculture results every 5 years, and they become increasingly terrifying as time goes on. Since 1978, the average age of the farmer has been rising by about 1 year or more, each census year.
In 2002 the average age of a farmer was 55.3 years, and 26.2% were over the age of 65. The 2007 results will be announced this February, and are expected to parallel these results. Read more
Big Oil Causes Big Mess in Ecuador
The Ecuadorian rain forests are suffering, and so are its inhabitants. Texaco (currently owned by Chevron Corporation) began prospecting for oil in Ecuador in 1964. They found what they were looking for, and built the invasive petroleum extraction infrastructure that still oppresses the local indigenous people and the Amazon.
Chevron insists that their involvement ends there. They refuse to take any responsibility for ominous environmental disaster that plagues the region that Texaco once profited from, and instead point their finger at PetroEcuador, a state-owned Ecuadorian oil company.
Ecuadorian citizens seem to disagree with the American company. A class action law suit was filed against Chevron in 1993 on behalf of 30,000 Amazon residents for polluting their environment. Read more
Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part Four
The immigration debate in the US has no relevance to the environmental issues that we are facing today. However, hate groups like Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) would like U.S. citizens to believe otherwise.
The anti-immigrant movement’s argument that immigrants are to blame for U.S. ecological degradation is deeply flawed. It has so many holes that it is transparent to anyone who thinks critically about the accusations they present. This is a strategic attack on immigrants, and cannot result in any productive environmental solutions. It only breeds more anti-immigrant hatred and leads Americans astray from real environmental progress. Read more
Bush Destruction Continues to the Very End
The Bush Administration has revealed devastating changes to an agricultural guestworker program. This program is known as H-2A, and has existed since 1986. It allows for farm owners and agricultural employers to bring in foreign born citizens to work on temporary visas.
This program has never been popular with unionizers and farm worker rights groups due to it’s negligent and oppressive nature. In fact it’s predecessor, the H-2, program ended over the controversial abuse workers in the program endured. Read more
Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part Three
Plastic makes up about 90% of the trash found in the ocean, and thanks to Charles Moore, a sailor and environmentalist, we now know that there is quite a lot of trash in our oceans. It is found particularly in and near the North Pacific gyre, which comprises most of the northern Pacific Ocean and is roughly the size of Texas. Read more
Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part Two
When Americans import goods from foreign regions they are often exporting environmental degradation. In the U.S. we import all of our coffee, mostly from Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala. And we import a lot of it. After oil, coffee is the second largest import in the United States.
Luckily, about two thirds of the world’s coffee beans are still classified as arabica. Arabica beans are grown at higher altitudes, require less watering, and need cooler climates. Which means that almost all arabica beans are shade grown, greatly reducing the number of trees being cut down. Shade-grown coffee also grows slower than other varieties, producing a more flavorful, higher quality product. Read more
Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part 1
I saw an article last week titled “Why Environmentalists Support Immigration Reform” on the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) website. Considering myself an environmentalist, I read the passage to better my understanding of exactly why “I” support immigration reform.
Now of course, as some of you may have already guessed, I was a bit skeptical of the entire notion, but I tried to keep an open mind. When doing a “preliminary skim” of the article, I noticed a rather interesting statement: “But however one may try to abdicate responsibility for it, the connection between immigration, population, and the environment remains.’ I was rather confused, thinking, ‘Well, I can see a connection between immigration and national population, and I can see a link between global population and environmental issues…” But I somehow couldn’t link those two thoughts. How are they connected? Read more
The Miracle of Thunder: Turning Water into Oil
Thunder Boone Pickens Jr. may have been the greenmailing poster boy for the oil industry in the 1980’s, but so what? It’s 2008 America! The man did a little research…and bam pow! an alternative energy activist is born. If you’re like most Americans and spend more time than you should starring at a screen (computer or TV), you’ve most likely seen his commercials. They feature the self-proclaimed “man with a plan” preaching the urgency of our environmental and economic crises, and offering a solution: The Pickens Plan.
Mr. Pickens’ layout calls for building new wind generation facilities and switching (firstly commercial) vehicles to run on natural gas instead of refined oil. Then, he will harness the power of the wind turbines, creating energy to replace the electricity that was previously supplied by natural gas. While reading his scheme, I couldn’t help but notice that he never mentions anything about Americans slowing down the pace of our energy usage. Perhaps we’d like to believe that we don’t need to change our lifestyles, but there simply aren’t enough resources for us to be consuming at the rate that we do. Although Mr. Pickens would disagree with me. Read more
Security, Sovereignty, & Justice
Earlier this year, prices of food staples shot up 40 percent, marking the fastest rate of increase since 1990. The current recession is beginning to bear its weight on the spending choices of middle-class Americans, from big ticket items to weekly grocery lists. Twenty eight million citizens are now relying on food stamps to survive - a record high and a sure sign of increased poverty levels. Food riots have been increasingly occurring around the world due to the rising price of grain and fear of starvation. Our nation’s food security is already at risk, and while some people may be reluctant to come to terms with this reality, I think it’s time to take a more in-depth look into social food movements already battling these pressing sustenance issues. Read more
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