Spend a few minutes reviewing the website of Green Dallas and you'll notice a common issue linking the city's highlighted challenges: population growth.
For example:
- Water: "...increasing population pressures are combining with increasing agricultural and industrial needs, and creating more stress on our reservoirs. As reservoir levels drop, water quality is impacted, because there are the same amount of pollutants in less water, so the concentration increases."
- Land: "As areas are developed and we cover our lawns in turf grass and exotic flowers, we lose the native plants and trees that naturally thrive in North Central Texas. This creates a host of interrelated problems."
- Food: "...with a growing population, we have to provide nutritious food for more people, in spite of the challenges presented by climate change and concentrated food production areas."
- Energy: "As more people move to the region, we have more and more cars and trucks on the road, since this is the main means of transportation by a wide margin. Gasoline and diesel prices are tied to a market that sees really large price swings, and they increase our country’s dependence on foreign oil. They also threaten natural resources, and result in increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions."
- Air Quality: "Regional data confirms that automobiles account for the majority of ozone-forming emissions released within North Central Texas."
While it's clear that unsustainable population growth is a fundamental issue for Dallas, the website offers no call to halt or even slow population growth. This is strange given that the City of Dallas describes itself as "a leader in sustainability and environmental management" that is "committed to ensuring that resources are available for future generations."
With significant population growth projected at the local, state and national levels, is a sustainable future probable when present human activity at the current population level isn't? If so, for how long and with what quality of life? If not, what is a prudent response?
These are some questions worth asking your elected officials, in person or in writing. They need to hear that their constituents not only recognize this mass immigration-driven Ponzi scheme but also want to do something about it.
I encourage you to join NumbersUSA at this year's EarthX Expo in Dallas, April 26-28, where we will be engaging with fellow attendees to connect the dots between federal immigration policy, population growth, sprawl, environmental degradation and quality of life. We welcome your help in elevating the discussion and translating forthright talk into effective action.
ROB HARDING is the NumbersUSA Sustainability Communications Manager
