Population growth in the region is driving sprawl, causing 86% of the loss of open space from 1982 to 2012. Per capita land consumption is responsible for the other 14%.
Local, state, and national policies are responsible for attracting new residents to the Piedmont, and immigration policy plays a large role, as 40% of population growth in the southern Piedmont is due to new immigrants and their children.
Population is rarely connected to sustainability, but as population increases, we all see our schools get more full, our roads more crowded, and our open spaces destroyed to make room for new development. Notable environmentalists from a wide array of political affiliations have, over the years, endorsed U.S. population stabilization from an environmental perspective, including former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter and former Senator and Earth Day father Gaylord Nelson.
Around 1970, U.S. population and environmental issues were widely and publicly linked. From college campuses to scientists to environmental groups, environmental and population issues were viewed as subsets of the same public-policy agenda. But over the years, the environmental groups have moved away from immigration's impact on population.
Earth Day Founder Gaylord Nelson said it best, "[I]t's phony to say 'I'm for the environment but not for limiting immigration…" U.S. population will increase from 203 million in 1970 to 439 million in 2050, according to the Census Bureau. Eighty-two percent of all U.S. population growth today is due to arriving immigrants and their children.
