Congress is investing more resources in farmland conservation, yet agricultural land continues to disappear beneath expanding subdivisions, roads, and infrastructure. Because immigration now accounts for most U.S. population growth, meaningful farmland preservation must include a conversation about how immigration policy influences housing demand and land use.
Housing affordability is usually discussed as a supply problem, but demand matters as well. As immigration becomes the primary driver of U.S. population growth, millions of additional households increase competition for housing, putting upward pressure on rents and home prices.
America cannot control ocean temperatures or atmospheric cycles. But Congress can influence immigration policy and population growth—factors that determine how many people, homes, and communities will be in the path of natural disasters.
At Earth Day’s inception, population growth was central to the conversation, and was linked to rising pollution, resource depletion, and habitat loss.
As population density increases, so too does light pollution, which has become an increasingly widespread environmental concern. Light pollution is defined as the alteration of natural nighttime lighting by artificial sources.
Without immigration-reduction, population growth and sprawl will continue to drive biodiversity losses and degrade Chesapeake Bay’s water quality, commercial fisheries, and overall ecological health.
The right whale is struggling to survive because of ongoing ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. With only about 380 left, right whales are one of the most endangered animals on Earth.
Over the past twenty-five years, NumbersUSA has published numerous scientific reports on the causes and consequences of sprawl in the United States. Our most recent study quantifies ecological decline in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed over the past three decades. Looking forward, we explore a path toward ecological sustainability centered on stabilizing the region’s population through reduced immigration.
If federal immigration policies driving national population growth continue, California’s environment and residents’ quality of life will pay an ever higher price. There can be no sustainability in a context of ever growing human populations.
