Dear HCN,
“Troubled harvest,” your
Dec. 18 lament over an immigration policy that doesn’t encourage
immigration, reads like a plea for “wise use.” A population that
grew more than 13 percent in the 1990s – the fastest growth rate
among the industrial nations – exacerbates virtually all of the
environmental problems covered so well by HCN. Most importantly,
nearly 70 percent of our growth comes from immigrants and their
children. This requires more of everything, turning the raw
materials from oilfields, mines, forests, rangelands and oceans
into food, shelter, clothing, traffic jams, urban sprawl,
greenhouse gases and crowded parks.
The emotional
satisfaction that comes from being a welcoming host for immigration
should not blind us to the realities of species extinction, the
fragmenting and loss of habitat, and ecosystems in collapse. The
American West is more than a picturesque void waiting to be filled
by immigration and the waves of white flight that ripple out ahead
of it.
John
Walker
Coaldale,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Unwise welcome?.
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