In “Taking the West Forward,” you bashed both the
Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress over energy
policy and their perceived failure to regulate carbon dioxide
emissions, but you failed to even mention the driving force behind
increasing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, namely
immigration (HCN, 12/6/04: Taking the West Forward).
The
increase in U.S. energy consumption between 1990 and 2003 was due
almost entirely to the 41 million people added to the U.S.
population during this time period. As a result of this increase in
energy consumption, carbon emissions increased by 216 million
metric tons to 1,581 million metric tons of carbon in 2003.
In the three-year period 2000-2003, legal immigration
into the U.S. averaged 944,600 per year. If immigration continues
at this rate, by 2020 another 16 million immigrants will have been
added to the U.S. population, which will result in an additional 87
million metric tons of carbon emissions annually.
Largely
because of present and past immigration, there is no way the U.S.
can ratify the Kyoto Protocol as it is presently drafted without
committing economic suicide. In order for the U.S. to meet the
Kyoto cap of 1,296 million metric tons of carbon emissions, year
2012 emissions would have to be reduced by 430 million metric tons,
or 25 percent. A reduction of that magnitude in 7 years would cause
major social and economic dislocations.
If
environmentalists are truly interested in reducing carbon dioxide
emissions rather than engaging in politically correct posturing,
they would be well-advised to focus on the real issue, which is
immigration.
Donald F.
Anthrop
Berkeley, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Immigration is the real issue.
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