The Chesapeake Bay Journal is running a multi-part series on excessive growth and overdevelopment in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The latest article leads with a mention of FAIR’s report on the harmful effects that immigration-driven population growth is having in the Bay’s watershed. The article’s author, Tom Horton, has written extensively about the Chesapeake Bay and has consistently acknowledged that immigration and a rapidly rising population has to be part of any honest conversation about the threats facing the Bay.
FAIR has for over 30 years argued that “environmental” groups that ignore immigration and population growth are doing great harm to the conservationist movement. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) epitomizes this obstructionism. The CBF supports the continuation of over development under the guise of “Smart Growth,” and it opposes ending mass immigration to the U.S. no matter the environmental costs. When FAIR’s report first came out, CBF spokesman, Tom Zolper, refused to acknowledge that population growth in any way was harmful to the health of the Bay.
In the Bay Journal article, William Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is quoting as saying:
“Would I like to see population stabilized, even reduced? Absolutely. But to tell poor countries to keep their people there because we don’t want their pollution is just wrong.”
There are many charitable organizations whose stated mission is to help impoverished people throughout the world, and many of them do great good. But Mr. Baker’s job is to “save” the Chesapeake Bay, not to throw up his hands and accept overpopulation and pollution in the Bay’s watershed as inevitable because we live in a less than perfect world. If we do not dismiss his quote merely as desultory cynicism, what he is arguing is that the United States must suffer unsustainable population growth and environmental ruin because, well, because it’s “just wrong” not to do so. Sadly, it is this type of thinking that characterizes many of the leading “environmental” groups in the United States.
Check out FAIR’s video below about the impact of illegal immigration on the Chesapeake Bay.
6 Comments
After joining (contributing to) the Sierra Club ten years ago I washed my hands of them when I discovered they would no longer stand against immigration and population growth as contributors to the declining state of our resources and natural environment.
I can’t blame anyone for wanting something for nothing. It’s just part of the human experience. My ancestors in the United States built and paid for roads, schools, hospitals, the telecommunications network, the electrical grid, canals, dams, the entire industrial complex of this country was built by the sweat and toil of millions of Americans for Americans. Now it seems there are millions of unfortunate, pennyless, starving refugees all over the world that think they have some sort of claim to what doesn’t belong to them, just because they exist. Well, I have news for you all. That isn’t how it’s going to work. If you want schools to educate your children, build schools. If you want hospitals to cure your sick, build hospitals. If you want food to feed your starving masses, grow food. There will not be a world welfare office that is going to supply you with all the things that you need that you or your government failed to plan for. The United States is not up for grabs by anyone. Come here legally, or go home.
Williweb: Thanks for the post!
Have to concur with Vietnam Vet: “Baker is an imbecile, should be sent to the Sahara Desert.
Insistence of the Bush and Obama Administrations (and L.B. Johnson who opened immigration doors wide), have
insured–along with intervening administrations like Clinton, Bush Sr., Carter–;the death of the United States as a
great country.
Pat Buchanan’s smash hit, “SUICIDE OF A SUPERPOWER,” tells us all about disintegration of our wonderful country,by stupidities like ‘diversity,’ over 300 foreign language radio stations supported, our open-door immigration policy, taking citizens taxes to pay for illegal aliens free hospitalization, free K12 schooling and two free meals a day for non-citizens, full employment for illegals, no taxation, paid under the table, and suffering rape, murder, and diseases at the hands of criminal aliens, that America had rid itself of years ago.
* * *
william Baker should have his Citizenship Revoked and sent to Mexico and never allowed to return. Its thought process like this that is destroying our Country, I can’t even imagine what this MORON is thinking when we have 4 Billion poor around the world are we going to bring them all here, I have seen far greater poverty around the world than what you have in Mexico. Why is it I never hear one of you Morons suggest we fix Mexico instead of Ruining the United States with a bunch of Foreigners who are Murdering Americans with Disease (20,000 in 2010) and Murdering Americans (Drunk Drivers and Murders at over 10,000 Americans) and taking 12 Million jobs away from Americans. Why are you still alive Bill?????
Amazing post Viet Nam Vet and thank you for your service; my family and I appreciate military personnel! Statistics are great tools when trying to persuade anti-American, pro-illegal immigrants that illegal immigration is bad for America. Do you also realize the impact illegal immigrants are having on the following?
Natural resources,
Land use (urban sprawl),
Education system,
Unemployment,
National security,
Medical services,
Judicial system,
Parks/Recreation system,
Time and effort of our elected officials,
The overall economy and devaluation of the American dollar???
I could continue but need to work so the illegal immigrants can live the American dream!!!