Policy View: Immigration, Population Policy, and the Sierra Club

Abstract

We need to find a civil way to talk about immigration to the United States its effects on the environment and its relationship to other serious demographic issues facing the country and the world. This invited commentary is intended to further that conversation in the wake of the recent infighting at the Sierra Club over immigration policy which has been extensively covered by the United States media. There is broad agreement among scientists that human population dynamics have significant effects on the environment at multiple scales and that the location density and movement of population is related to a variety of conservation and environmental impacts. On the political side very few people favor either completely closed or completely open borders for the United States. However discussion of the vast middle ground between those two policy options has become so contentious and polarized that serious public debate has been largely paralyzed. This is an issue much larger than the Sierra Club and its ongoing internal and public political battle over whether the environmental organization should advocate a specific policy. Immigration is the only significant long-term driver of American population growth. (excerpt)