Open Letter to John Tanton on Global Warming

Published July 08, 2009 @ 10:58PM PT

Dear John Tanton,
Mark Krikorian,
Roy Beck, and
Dan Stein:

I write concerning the landmark legislation to combat global warming currently pending in Congress. What is your position on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) that narrowly passed recently in the U.S. House of Representatives?

You claim to oppose liberal immigration laws in part on the basis that they are bad for the environment. Specifically, you have argued that immigration fuels population growth, which in turn harms the environment by transferring people from low-polluting nations to the high-polluting U.S.

The NRDC believes that ACES, also known as cap-and-trade legislation or the Waxman-Markey bill, "has the major ingredients to generate millions of jobs, break our dependence on oil and reduce the pollution that causes global warming." To date, the U.S. is increasingly isolated among developed countries by its failure to pass national legislation to combat global warming. ACES would change that.

Yet I couldn't find much about the bill on your websites: NumbersUSA doesn't mention it at all, and FAIR mentions it once, to condemn the bill for failing to include new immigration restrictions.

I analyzed the House vote on ACES and found that the Representatives who scored highest on NumbersUSA's Immigration Report Cards, with a grade of a "B" or higher, voted against ACES at a rate of more than 5 to 1 (168-31). These numbers indicate that most House Representatives support either immigration restrictions or legislation to combat global warming, but not both.

So my question for you is this: Will you ask Congress to support ACES and other environmentally-friendly legislation? Or will you continue to assert that policies that limit immigration, rather than those that limit carbon emissions, are the key to slowing climate change?

Regards,

Dave Bennion
immigration.change.org

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Comments (7)

There is much viable research out there supporting less population on this planet. There are only so much natural resources to support any given population within any country. One doesn't even need to look at the research to use common sense in this matter. More people...less resources to go around. More people...less ariable land space. More people...more demands on education and healthcare. More people...more crowded condtions as in housing and road travel. More people...more crime. An overbloated economy that requires much additional people to support it is not healthy in the long run.

We must breed responsibly and strive for a less crowded earth and encourage other countries to create jobs and an healthy environment for their own people rather than importing them to our country in large numbers. We cannot continue to be the scapegoat for the world's poor anymore. Our population has grown to over 300 million since its founding. I am sure our founding fathers didn't expect us to follow a poem on a statue for eternity and commit national suicide.

Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/09/2009 @ 09:30AM PT
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Brilliant! Thank you for calling Tanton, Krikorian, et al, on their hypocrisy. Anyone with any real creds as an environmentalist would have jumped to support a bill that will "generate millions of jobs, break our dependence on oil and reduce the pollution that causes global warming." The fact that they haven't done so is revealing. Seems that the environmentalist pose is so much smoke and mirrors which serves to mask the racism and xenophobia motivating these groups (ditto for the "rule of law" rhetoric). Hey, let us know if you get a response! I want to hear what they have to say for themselves.

Posted by a d on 07/10/2009 @ 04:21PM PT
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Talk about sticking one's head in the sand. It simply amazes me how anyone can refuse to use just plain old common sense on environmental issues. Even a third grader would be able to understand how the larger a population is in any country it negatively effects our environment, natural resources and all the other things that I mentioned. I guess the agenda trumps common sense with some.

Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/11/2009 @ 08:11AM PT
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I'll ask you, too, then, Mark. Do you support the cap-and-trade bill? That's what I'm asking these other men.

Posted by Dave Bennion on 07/11/2009 @ 08:37AM PT
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That was Brillant! Their true colors show when they do not show support for enviromental issues and they use it as a vehicle for "rhetoric" to oppose immigrants.

Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/12/2009 @ 07:32PM PT
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Dave, I can't say that I understand the bill enough to comment on it. All I do know is that the more people there are within a particular land mass the more demands that will be made on all the things I mentioned. My solution is to encourage less procreation on this planet and to encourage other countries to create economic resources for their own citizens so they will want to remain in their homelands.

Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/11/2009 @ 04:09PM PT
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This whole "cap & trade" system could well be the next "bubble". And when it bursts down the road, we'll be saying (like we said when the mortgage/hitech bubble(s) burst) - "How could we have bought into something so stupid?".

Posted by Wire Paladin on 07/15/2009 @ 03:59AM PT
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David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.