On Earth Day 2009, all environmental organizations should have done some moral accounting. In particular, they should have decided whether they have abandoned the original objectives of Earth Day which was Co-Founded in 1970 by the late American Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson.
Mr. Nelson was an environmental pioneer with great foresight. Mr. Nelson's Earth Day is now celebrated around the world. To him, a continually increasing U.S. population, primarily driven by immigration, meant massive environmental degradation. In contrast to most of today's timid environmental organizations and many elected officials, Mr. Nelson advocated major reductions in legal immigration and strong border controls to stop illegal immigration. His goal was to achieve population stabilization in the U.S.
In Nelson's lifetime (1916 to 2005) , the U.S. population tripled from 100 million to almost 300 million. Its most dramatic increase occurred between 1960 and 2005 when it grew from 180 million to 296 million.
Recognizing the danger of unchecked population growth very early in his career, Senator Nelson authored the U.S. Wilderness Act (1964) and a number of other state and federal environmental bills. As Wisconsin state governor in the 1950's, he used a cigarette tax to buy and protect hundreds of thousands of acres of parkland, wetlands and other open space. In the U.S. Senate, Nelson championed conservation policies, including legislation to preserve the Appalachian Trail and create a national hiking system.
Mr. Nelson became the inspiration for the U.S. Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. In responding to conflict between economic and environmental interests, Mr. Nelson once characterized a country's economy as "the wholly owned subsidiary of the environment". In his view, the health of all life as well as that of the human economy depended on the health of the environment.
Do most Canadian, American and international environmental organizations, in whose countries immigration is the major factor in population growth, warn about the dangers of continued population growth? The answer is "No".
The most notorious case of an environmental group which has denied the population/environment connection is the U.S. Sierra Club. For years, many people were suspicious of why the club did not speak out against record increases in U.S. population (largely due to legal and illegal immigration). In 2004, the truth surfaced in a Los Angeles Times article in which a major Sierra Club benefactor, David Gelbaum, said that he had recently contributed over $100 million to the club. He also stated that years earlier, he had made it clear that his generosity would end if the club took a stand against immigration.
After Gelbaum delivered his ultimatum, the Sierra Club dropped any mention of immigration. Instead, it focused attention on reducing American consumption levels. As critics of "greenwash" have stated, this approach is fraudulent. The wastes generated by population increases soon negate any gains from reductions in consumption.
Are Canadian groups acting similarly? The answer is Yes. Almost all Canadian environmental groups remain silent about immigration. Some, through spokespeople like Elizabeth May, even trivialize population increases such as Canada's post-1990, immigration-driven population increase of close to 5 million. Most think that all population growth can be "managed". They promote so-called "smart growth". An unknown number of others take large donations from profit-driven corporations such as RBC that promote huge immigration/population increases. For example, in 2007, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NC), with around 30,000 supporters here, received $1 Million from the Royal Bank of Canada.
The David Suzuki Foundation (with 40,000 donors) behaves in a similar way. It takes donations from RBC Foundation and the BMO and it too says nothing about immigration. For instance, in 2006, the Suzuki publication, "Forever Farmland", justifiably warned about the loss of agricultural land in British Columbia, particularly the province's best farmland located in or next to Metro Vancouver. By saying that 85% of all population growth in Metro Vancouver is caused by a shameless vote-getting immigration policy, the David Suzuki Foundation could have shown some leadership. Why did they not advocate immigration reductions and population stabilization for British Columbia and all of Canada? Why did they not proclaim that Canada, despite its size, has a very small amount of agricultural land and that, through senseless immigration, it endangers its own future food supply and its potential to feed others?
Ontario's Environmental Commissioner has been one of the few environmental figures to show some leadership. Undoubtedly, he knows that Ontario has lost around 1 million acres of farmland as a result of accommodating Canada's post-1990 immigration tsunami. Furthermore, he has stated that Southern Ontario does not have the water resources to support its projected population increase--which will be primarily immigration-driven.
Sounding like Earth Day Co-Founder Gaylord Nelson, he has asked the key environmental question for his province : Why must Ontario's population keep growing?
On Earth Day, 2009, all Canadian environmental organizations have to answer two important questions : (1) Have they been silent about the dangers of continued population growth, primarily driven by immigration? (2) Have they accepted financial support from corporations or individuals like David Gelbaum who demand silence on immigration and some of whom actually promote high population and high immigration?
If an environmental organization cannot answer "NO" to both questions, then it has abandoned and betrayed the original objectives of Earth Day.
These questions are the litmus test for all truly green organizations.
Dan Murray, Director, Immigration Watch Canada www.immigrationwatchcanada.org
Friday, April 24, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
CALCULATING THE GROSS NATIONAL TRASH
By Joel Makower, March 20, 2009 http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/03/20/calculating-gross-national-trash
More than 15 years ago, I received some data that changed the way I looked at trash. It came in the form of an obscure presentation by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official to a September 1992 teleconference hosted by the Center for Industrial Services at the University of Tennessee.
The document was an eye-opener. According to Jim Lounsbury, then in the EPA's Office of Solid Waste, the pile of trash that had become the focus of public concern -- the so-called "landfill crisis" -- municipal solid waste, or MSW, comprised only a tiny piece of the overall waste disposal picture. There were several much, much bigger piles of trash created by industrial activity to which no one was paying attention.
I've been writing and speaking about that larger trash pile -- which I dubbed the Gross National Trash, or GNT -- repeatedly, including in my recent book, Strategies for the Green Economy. As I explained it, MSW -- which consists of newspaper, cardboard, yard clippings, bottles and cans, other packaging, and various other things people toss out -- represented only about 1.5 percent of Gross National Trash. The rest consisted of a long list of industrial debris, including various manufacturing wastes, construction and demolition waste, sludge, hazardous waste, and many other things.
Problem was, that 1992 study was never updated. And while solid waste experts I consulted assured me that the relative amounts probably hadn't changed much, the age of the data bothered me nonetheless.
But I've just stumbled over some much newer data -- 15 years newer, to be exact -- and while the overall point I was making hasn't changed, the numbers have changed a great deal.
And that raises more questions than answers.
Indeed, it makes me more than a little suspicious.
Here's the gist of the problem. The 1992 data showed that U.S. industry created 13.2 billion tons of GNT. In contrast, MSW that year equaled only 195 million tons -- about 1.5 percent of the total.
In 2007, GNT equaled only 2.6 billion tons, while MSW grew to 252 million tons -- representing nearly 10 percent of the total.
So, industrial trash dropped by 80 percent, while consumer trash grew by 30 percent. This, during a time when the U.S. population grew by 18 percent (from 255 million to 301 million people) and the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, more than doubled (from $6.2 trillion to $13.5 trillion in 2000 dollars).
There are two possible explanations. One is that industry has gotten magnificently more efficient over the past decade and a half, producing a lot more stuff while creating just a fraction of the waste.
The other is that the government -- and the rest of us -- don't have a clue about how much waste companies produce.
I'm inclined to go with the latter.
Not that the first version doesn't have some merit. Over the past 15 years, companies have gotten much more efficient. For example, in our 2009 State of Green Business report, we tracked year-over-year decreases in the amount of paper and packaging used per dollar of GDP. So, improvements are taking place.
But not to the extent that these data show.
Take industrial non-hazardous waste, for example, a classification that includes effluents from pulp and paper, iron and steel, stone, clay, glass, concrete, food processing, textile manufacturing, plastics and resins manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, water treatment, and other industries and processes. In 1992, the EPA calculated 7.6 billion tons a year of the stuff (39 times more than all of the MSW generated that year). In 2007, says EPA, there was just 214 million tons -- a roughly 97 percent decrease (and roughly equal to MSW that year). Where did it all go?
During that same period, hazardous waste -- a witch's brew of nearly 500 toxic ingredients found in paints, pesticides, printing ink, and in hundreds of manufacturing processes -- plummeted from 240 million tons a year to just 9.6 million tons, a 96 percent decrease.
You catching a theme here?
What's the point? It's that most of us have been focusing on the wrong pile of trash. The principal concern isn't primarily the roughly quarter-billion tons of MSW that we toss out each year, though that's no trivial sum. It's the much larger pile, somewhere between 2.6 billion and 13 billion tons -- or maybe more. No one really knows.
But we need to know. The amount of waste we produce -- hazardous or not -- has implications on our health, wealth, and well being. It impacts our energy, air, and water, and the production of greenhouse gases, among other things. Its mere presence signals manufacturing and marketplace inefficiencies -- processes and trading systems in which the creation of waste is an acceptable, affordable outcome.
That's anathema to an economy seeking to become lean and competitive on the world stage, and to a world seeking to use energy, water, materials, and other resources far more wisely while addressing problems like air and water pollution, food security, and climate change.
But how can we aim our economy in the right direction if we don't know where we are?
There are implications for companies. As I wrote in my book (citing the 1992 data):
It’s only a matter of time before the story of GNT gets told, and the public recognizes that for every pound of trash that ends up in municipal landfills, at least 65 more pounds are created upstream by industrial processes -- and that a lot of this waste is far more dangerous to environmental and human health than our newspapers and grass clippings. At that point, the locus of concern could shift away from beverage containers, grocery bags, and the other mundane junk of daily life to what happens behind the scenes -- the production, crating, storing, and shipping of the goods we buy and use. And interested parties may start asking questions.
The disparate 1992 and 2007 figures on the Gross National Trash are troubling for us all. For all the talk about competitiveness, environmental responsibility, accountability, and public health, we're missing an important piece of the picture.
By the way, the 2007 trash data I fell into recently have never been published. Nor were the 1992 data collected by an EPA employee, since retired. (You can download the Tennessee teleconference document here in PDF; the data in question are on page 10.) The 2007 data were unearthed by an industrious researcher for a magazine article I recently wrote. So, the EPA is collecting this information -- albeit sporadically -- but not doing anything with it. Given the seemingly poor quality of the data, that's a mixed blessing.
How much trash does U.S. industry really produce each year? Your guess is as good as mine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Postscript T. Murray
-
This should have important implications. If a source with the Stockholm Environmental Institute says that one immigrant (or newborn) wipes out 80 lifetimes of responsible cycling, then imagine that immigrant's impact on the volume of industrial waste--which is far more toxic. Each consumer generates 65 times as much garbage (per pound) in the industrial process he supports through his consumption than he does from the waste he personally discards to the landfill. 65 to 1. OK, it should be a matter of taking the average amount of waste each Canadian generates 0.71 tonnes of industrial waste. Then 265,000 immigrants will contribute188150 tons of industrial waste. Divide by 65 to establish personal trash. Immigrants therefore will contribute 188,150 tons of waste at the curb side, if we prorate American data. Don't trust my math but you see the point. We could do our own calculations re. Canada and find out how much each Canadian saves from the landfill and how that gain is wiped out by pop growth.
More than 15 years ago, I received some data that changed the way I looked at trash. It came in the form of an obscure presentation by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official to a September 1992 teleconference hosted by the Center for Industrial Services at the University of Tennessee.
The document was an eye-opener. According to Jim Lounsbury, then in the EPA's Office of Solid Waste, the pile of trash that had become the focus of public concern -- the so-called "landfill crisis" -- municipal solid waste, or MSW, comprised only a tiny piece of the overall waste disposal picture. There were several much, much bigger piles of trash created by industrial activity to which no one was paying attention.
I've been writing and speaking about that larger trash pile -- which I dubbed the Gross National Trash, or GNT -- repeatedly, including in my recent book, Strategies for the Green Economy. As I explained it, MSW -- which consists of newspaper, cardboard, yard clippings, bottles and cans, other packaging, and various other things people toss out -- represented only about 1.5 percent of Gross National Trash. The rest consisted of a long list of industrial debris, including various manufacturing wastes, construction and demolition waste, sludge, hazardous waste, and many other things.
Problem was, that 1992 study was never updated. And while solid waste experts I consulted assured me that the relative amounts probably hadn't changed much, the age of the data bothered me nonetheless.
But I've just stumbled over some much newer data -- 15 years newer, to be exact -- and while the overall point I was making hasn't changed, the numbers have changed a great deal.
And that raises more questions than answers.
Indeed, it makes me more than a little suspicious.
Here's the gist of the problem. The 1992 data showed that U.S. industry created 13.2 billion tons of GNT. In contrast, MSW that year equaled only 195 million tons -- about 1.5 percent of the total.
In 2007, GNT equaled only 2.6 billion tons, while MSW grew to 252 million tons -- representing nearly 10 percent of the total.
So, industrial trash dropped by 80 percent, while consumer trash grew by 30 percent. This, during a time when the U.S. population grew by 18 percent (from 255 million to 301 million people) and the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, more than doubled (from $6.2 trillion to $13.5 trillion in 2000 dollars).
There are two possible explanations. One is that industry has gotten magnificently more efficient over the past decade and a half, producing a lot more stuff while creating just a fraction of the waste.
The other is that the government -- and the rest of us -- don't have a clue about how much waste companies produce.
I'm inclined to go with the latter.
Not that the first version doesn't have some merit. Over the past 15 years, companies have gotten much more efficient. For example, in our 2009 State of Green Business report, we tracked year-over-year decreases in the amount of paper and packaging used per dollar of GDP. So, improvements are taking place.
But not to the extent that these data show.
Take industrial non-hazardous waste, for example, a classification that includes effluents from pulp and paper, iron and steel, stone, clay, glass, concrete, food processing, textile manufacturing, plastics and resins manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, water treatment, and other industries and processes. In 1992, the EPA calculated 7.6 billion tons a year of the stuff (39 times more than all of the MSW generated that year). In 2007, says EPA, there was just 214 million tons -- a roughly 97 percent decrease (and roughly equal to MSW that year). Where did it all go?
During that same period, hazardous waste -- a witch's brew of nearly 500 toxic ingredients found in paints, pesticides, printing ink, and in hundreds of manufacturing processes -- plummeted from 240 million tons a year to just 9.6 million tons, a 96 percent decrease.
You catching a theme here?
What's the point? It's that most of us have been focusing on the wrong pile of trash. The principal concern isn't primarily the roughly quarter-billion tons of MSW that we toss out each year, though that's no trivial sum. It's the much larger pile, somewhere between 2.6 billion and 13 billion tons -- or maybe more. No one really knows.
But we need to know. The amount of waste we produce -- hazardous or not -- has implications on our health, wealth, and well being. It impacts our energy, air, and water, and the production of greenhouse gases, among other things. Its mere presence signals manufacturing and marketplace inefficiencies -- processes and trading systems in which the creation of waste is an acceptable, affordable outcome.
That's anathema to an economy seeking to become lean and competitive on the world stage, and to a world seeking to use energy, water, materials, and other resources far more wisely while addressing problems like air and water pollution, food security, and climate change.
But how can we aim our economy in the right direction if we don't know where we are?
There are implications for companies. As I wrote in my book (citing the 1992 data):
It’s only a matter of time before the story of GNT gets told, and the public recognizes that for every pound of trash that ends up in municipal landfills, at least 65 more pounds are created upstream by industrial processes -- and that a lot of this waste is far more dangerous to environmental and human health than our newspapers and grass clippings. At that point, the locus of concern could shift away from beverage containers, grocery bags, and the other mundane junk of daily life to what happens behind the scenes -- the production, crating, storing, and shipping of the goods we buy and use. And interested parties may start asking questions.
The disparate 1992 and 2007 figures on the Gross National Trash are troubling for us all. For all the talk about competitiveness, environmental responsibility, accountability, and public health, we're missing an important piece of the picture.
By the way, the 2007 trash data I fell into recently have never been published. Nor were the 1992 data collected by an EPA employee, since retired. (You can download the Tennessee teleconference document here in PDF; the data in question are on page 10.) The 2007 data were unearthed by an industrious researcher for a magazine article I recently wrote. So, the EPA is collecting this information -- albeit sporadically -- but not doing anything with it. Given the seemingly poor quality of the data, that's a mixed blessing.
How much trash does U.S. industry really produce each year? Your guess is as good as mine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Postscript T. Murray
-
This should have important implications. If a source with the Stockholm Environmental Institute says that one immigrant (or newborn) wipes out 80 lifetimes of responsible cycling, then imagine that immigrant's impact on the volume of industrial waste--which is far more toxic. Each consumer generates 65 times as much garbage (per pound) in the industrial process he supports through his consumption than he does from the waste he personally discards to the landfill. 65 to 1. OK, it should be a matter of taking the average amount of waste each Canadian generates 0.71 tonnes of industrial waste. Then 265,000 immigrants will contribute188150 tons of industrial waste. Divide by 65 to establish personal trash. Immigrants therefore will contribute 188,150 tons of waste at the curb side, if we prorate American data. Don't trust my math but you see the point. We could do our own calculations re. Canada and find out how much each Canadian saves from the landfill and how that gain is wiped out by pop growth.
THE GREEN-LEFT BOBSY TWINS MIGHT FOLLOW THE SWEDISH LEAD---NDP-Green Partnership Marriage Made in Heaven
It used to be said that California was at the cutting edge of all social and political trends. It was always where we wanted to go or the place whose lifestyle we wanted to have or emulate. But for many, it was Sweden that was a beacon for progressive, civilized living. Free, compassionate, egalitarian and prosperous at the same time. An oasis of sanity in an insane world. And for such people, it still is. It has maintained that image, largely because those living outside of it never probe or investigate its true contemporary nature. It is not a utopia, but a dystopia. It is not so much a role model for the masses but a bell weather for where we are heading. It is the vanguard of the new totalitarianism.
Tell me that its political parties are at the vanguard of thinking of parties and organizations elsewhere, in other countries. Try this:
According to “Fjordman”, the Green Party favor ideological Globalism in its purest form. They want a “world citizenship” to replace the national citizenship, totally free migration on a global basis, global taxes and a strengthened United Nations to ensure a just world order. Example from their program,
“We do not believe in artificial borders. We have a vision of unrestricted immigration and emigration, where people have the right to live and work wherever they please….We want Sweden to become an international role model by producing a plan to implement unrestricted immigration.”
This is the Green Party that Social Democratic Party leader, the Olivia Chow of Sweden, Mona Sahlin, wants to form a coalition government with in 2010. This stands to reason. For as Fjordman stated about the Socialists of Europe:
“As usual in Western countries, Socialists who undermine their own countries are de facto allies with Big Business interests, the same business interests that have championed the borderless EU common market, who desire bigger markets and an abundant supply of cheap labor, and tend to view defended national borders as an obstacle to both”.
Alistair McConnachie, editor of Glasgow-based “Sovereignty”, would agree. In his words,
We're expected to show "solidarity" with the massive influx of immigrants, especially the illegal ones -- which the Left like to call "irregular" -- and bogus asylum seekers, and to put from our minds the political, social, economic and ecological consequences of this immigration invasion -- for the greater notion of "solidarity".
In that sense, "solidarity" is simply a slogan being used to undermine my rights and to prevent me articulating them and to stop me standing up for myself, and my group's interests. It is in this politically perverted sense that the Left today almost always use the term.
Why do the Left insist on doing this?
Why do they seek to geld opposition to neo-liberalism from the working class by misusing the idea of "international solidarity" when it is not appropriate to the circumstances, nor the interests, of the people to whom they are speaking?
The reason is because the Left's over-arching ideology of "equality" demands that they put "equality for all" before the interests of any specific element of the working class.
Therefore, if working class people in England are being displaced from apprenticeships, or jobs, by already qualified Eastern Europeans, or Somali refugees, then the Leftist will not stand up for the English indigenous working class because his doctrine of "equality" mandates that he cannot and must not "discriminate" between people in any way.
Therefore, he will argue that the Somali has a right to this job too and that the Englishman needs to see himself, not as part of a national citizenry, but rather as part of an amorphous "international working class" in which he is "equal" with this Somali and shares "solidarity" with this Somali "working class person". Viewed this way, the Englishman can only lose.
To promote "equality", the Englishman is expected to deny his interests, forfeit his rights and cede his space in the name of "solidarity" with someone he's never met, who is likely not a citizen, and is probably a law-breaker!
As a consequence of its ideological obsession with "equality", the Left cannot and will not oppose free movement of labour and so it must try deliberately to pervert and misuse the idea of solidarity in order to neuter any working class opposition to the open-borders of neo-liberalism. (Sept. 06 edition of “Sovereignty”)
So in this context the coalition partnership of NDP and Greens with the Liberals that was proposed in Canada’s House of Commons makes complete sense. An NDP—Green alliance would be a marriage made in heaven. As I wrote a while ago,
“Greens say they stand for "social and economic justice".
The NDP says it has a "Green Agenda".
They look very much like the Bobsy Twins to me. Yet they are always fighting, always claiming they are so different from one another. Freud had the answer. "The Narcissism of Small Differences". When two tribes have so very much in common ----hypocrisy, self-delusion, self-righteousness, schizophrenia, myopia----they highlight their tiny differences and inflate them.
That God for that. The Green-Left Bobsy Twins, the NDP and the Greens---if united to form a growthist tag time of contempt for our national culture and national identity, as flows from an unspoiled landscape that is the bedrock of our soul, would be a formidable force. Sweden might show them way.
Tell me that its political parties are at the vanguard of thinking of parties and organizations elsewhere, in other countries. Try this:
According to “Fjordman”, the Green Party favor ideological Globalism in its purest form. They want a “world citizenship” to replace the national citizenship, totally free migration on a global basis, global taxes and a strengthened United Nations to ensure a just world order. Example from their program,
“We do not believe in artificial borders. We have a vision of unrestricted immigration and emigration, where people have the right to live and work wherever they please….We want Sweden to become an international role model by producing a plan to implement unrestricted immigration.”
This is the Green Party that Social Democratic Party leader, the Olivia Chow of Sweden, Mona Sahlin, wants to form a coalition government with in 2010. This stands to reason. For as Fjordman stated about the Socialists of Europe:
“As usual in Western countries, Socialists who undermine their own countries are de facto allies with Big Business interests, the same business interests that have championed the borderless EU common market, who desire bigger markets and an abundant supply of cheap labor, and tend to view defended national borders as an obstacle to both”.
Alistair McConnachie, editor of Glasgow-based “Sovereignty”, would agree. In his words,
We're expected to show "solidarity" with the massive influx of immigrants, especially the illegal ones -- which the Left like to call "irregular" -- and bogus asylum seekers, and to put from our minds the political, social, economic and ecological consequences of this immigration invasion -- for the greater notion of "solidarity".
In that sense, "solidarity" is simply a slogan being used to undermine my rights and to prevent me articulating them and to stop me standing up for myself, and my group's interests. It is in this politically perverted sense that the Left today almost always use the term.
Why do the Left insist on doing this?
Why do they seek to geld opposition to neo-liberalism from the working class by misusing the idea of "international solidarity" when it is not appropriate to the circumstances, nor the interests, of the people to whom they are speaking?
The reason is because the Left's over-arching ideology of "equality" demands that they put "equality for all" before the interests of any specific element of the working class.
Therefore, if working class people in England are being displaced from apprenticeships, or jobs, by already qualified Eastern Europeans, or Somali refugees, then the Leftist will not stand up for the English indigenous working class because his doctrine of "equality" mandates that he cannot and must not "discriminate" between people in any way.
Therefore, he will argue that the Somali has a right to this job too and that the Englishman needs to see himself, not as part of a national citizenry, but rather as part of an amorphous "international working class" in which he is "equal" with this Somali and shares "solidarity" with this Somali "working class person". Viewed this way, the Englishman can only lose.
To promote "equality", the Englishman is expected to deny his interests, forfeit his rights and cede his space in the name of "solidarity" with someone he's never met, who is likely not a citizen, and is probably a law-breaker!
As a consequence of its ideological obsession with "equality", the Left cannot and will not oppose free movement of labour and so it must try deliberately to pervert and misuse the idea of solidarity in order to neuter any working class opposition to the open-borders of neo-liberalism. (Sept. 06 edition of “Sovereignty”)
So in this context the coalition partnership of NDP and Greens with the Liberals that was proposed in Canada’s House of Commons makes complete sense. An NDP—Green alliance would be a marriage made in heaven. As I wrote a while ago,
“Greens say they stand for "social and economic justice".
The NDP says it has a "Green Agenda".
They look very much like the Bobsy Twins to me. Yet they are always fighting, always claiming they are so different from one another. Freud had the answer. "The Narcissism of Small Differences". When two tribes have so very much in common ----hypocrisy, self-delusion, self-righteousness, schizophrenia, myopia----they highlight their tiny differences and inflate them.
That God for that. The Green-Left Bobsy Twins, the NDP and the Greens---if united to form a growthist tag time of contempt for our national culture and national identity, as flows from an unspoiled landscape that is the bedrock of our soul, would be a formidable force. Sweden might show them way.
NDP ENVIRONMENTAL UNDERSTANDING: Example No. 24
Letter from federal NDP candidate Shawn Lewis
Just so you know Tim, I have corresponded with Brishen on this issue before and I think you both have raised some excellent points. Like you I am not optimistic that this problem can be solved, I recognize the problem, but we are battling against a human culture that has thousands of years of increasing gluttony into its social history. My goodness, we can barely get wind turbine farms approved because of selfish NIMBYism.
Like both you and Rob, I happily acknowledge the Earth has a finite carrying capacity, I don’t want to get into a numbers game, because frankly I don’t think anyone can fairly say what the optimum capacity is. If we are not already over it, we must be dangerously close.
My primary concern is that a) we cannot address this issue over night, we simply do not live in a culture prepared in any way shape or form to generally acknowledge the problem (though the fact we are having this discussion shows some people are starting to acknowledge it) b) if we rush head long into this we run the dangerous risk of destroying the only viable political party in Canada capable of eventually championing this issue c) we need to be willing to compromise on some shorter term battles in order to continue to build the political credibility needed to start the discussion.
Democracy is great on paper, but it is a slow and messy process in reality.
Anyway, enough for me this evening, I will forward your reply along to Rob.
In solidarity,
Shawn Lewis
Federal Vice-President
NDP London-Fanshawe
www.ndplondonfanshawe.ca
londonfanshawe@ndp.ca
Let’s review Shawn’s logic:
“My goodness, we can barely get wind turbine farms approved because of selfish NIMBYism.”So it is “selfish” to oppose an energy “solution” that doesn’t solve anything? That is a proven failure because it cannot guarantee the delivery of a consistent and dependable energy flow and must therefore be supplemented by conventional energy sources (nuclear, coal or hydo)? An energy solution that does not address the problem, which is the generation and growth of energy CONSUMPTION? A problem for which social democrats and Greens only prescribe “conservation” as a remedy? In other words, a reduction in PER CAPITA energy consumption. As we are tired of explaining, this kind of constraint is meaningless in the context of unrelenting immigrant-driven population growth. As Brishen Hoff concluded in the spring of 2007, the supply of energy provided by the proposed Sarnia wind farm would be mopped up by just 23 days of business-as-usual immigration.
The only solution to our energy shortfall is a reduction in our TOTAL consumption. This can only involve a sharp reduction in immigration, with conservation and technological efficiencies a complement. Neither Shawn Lewis nor any New Democrat in a leadership position evidences any understanding of this.
“I don’t think anyone can fairly say what the optimum capacity is. If we are not already over it, we must be dangerously close.”
Duh. Shawn presumably has noticed the deforestation of his “Forest City” so that it may accommodate population growth. He has seen the loss of orchards so that people may be housed. Has he is also noticed that now London supermarkets must carry apples imported from Mexico to replace the ones once grown around London? Does he think that those Mexico apples, along with other “exotic” produce, will be available when oil-fuelled transportation networks break down? Is not aware that the GTA, the Fraser Valley and the Okanagan, among other Canadian localities, have also fallen prey to sprawl? Is this predicament of losing our food security “optimum” for Canada? Ontario alone is losing 60,000 acres a year of its prime farmland to population growth. At what point would Shawn Lewis and his New Democratic colleagues decide that we are “dangerously close” to our carrying capacity? After we have made this country into the image of NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow’s hometown?
The NDP, like the Greens and the Liberals, want to see immigration intakes at least a third HIGHER than what the Harper government has decided to allow this year. From 265,000 per annum to 330,000 plus per annum. Their famous “1%” target. Since none of these “opposition” parties would dismantle the Alberta Tar Sands project, the bald fact is, this “green coalition”, as it was once ready to become, is MORE unfriendly to the environment than the Conservative government. If they won't or can't shut the tar sands down, they could save our food security by shutting down mass immigration with a zero-net-migration policy at the very least. One new applicant comes in the door when one citizen emigrates. Of course, Mr. Lewis would not doubt borrow from the Greenpeace-Sierran-Suzuki-May handbook of pat answers and retort that Greenfield acreage could easily be saved by “smart growth” measures even in the face of our runaway population growth (fastest in the G8). But the fact is, land use planning is a local, not a federal matter. And guess who finances nearly 75% of municipal and city election campaigns? That is right, developers. And in too many Canadian towns, they have the gall to sit in the mayor’s chair. The NDP knows this, as does Green Party leader Elizabeth May. Yet they prescribe rapid population growth as if it were not a reality.
“… we need to be willing to compromise on some shorter term battles in order to continue to build the political credibility needed to start the discussion.”Is that what “credibility” means? Selling out to the enemy so that the media will give you the coveted label of “Moderate”? For me, credibility comes with integrity, and integrity means NOT accepting something that is fundamentally wrong. How is it that our political culture became so decadent that popularity is equated with “credibility”, and that quisling organizations like the Sierra Club advertise themselves as “respectable” simply on the basis that they are respected by the power brokers of growthism?
“if we rush head long into this we run the dangerous risk of destroying the only viable political party in Canada capable of eventually championing this issue.”
Can anyone believe that the NDP will “eventually” champion genuine sustainability, on the basis of the statements made by Jack Layton and Lorne Calvert to the effect that “growth is good” so long as its “benefits” are equitably shared? In other words, that it is OK to cut down an apple orchard outside London if social housing is built in its place? Does the NDP record in government give us cause for optimism? Does the party of Glen Clark, the premier who called those who opposed the clear-cut logging of old growth forests “enemies of BC”, inspire confidence? The same party that made Lorne Calvert its leader and premier for 17 years while GHG emissions went up 60% during his reign? Who looked the other way so he could reap the royalties of uranium mining? The party that rivals the Greens and the Liberals in their shameless advocacy of mass immigration, the key ingredient of our environmental degradation, contributing FOUR TIMES more GHG emissions than the tar sands each year, as well as gobbling up farmland, threatening endangered species with the subdivisions it requires and depressing the wages and displacing the jobs of the Canadian workers it claims to represent? (cf. May 2007 Stats Can report and the 1985 Royal Commission on the impact of immigration on jobs).
I would respectfully suggest that we would be better off if the NDP, the Greens and the environmental NGOs WERE destroyed, for their existence gives too many of us a false sense of security, an unfounded confidence that our GREEN “WATCHDOGS” are faithfully guarding the environment and keeping corporate greed at bay. But the fact is, they are barking at shadows while millions of consumers pour in through the front gate.
Just so you know Tim, I have corresponded with Brishen on this issue before and I think you both have raised some excellent points. Like you I am not optimistic that this problem can be solved, I recognize the problem, but we are battling against a human culture that has thousands of years of increasing gluttony into its social history. My goodness, we can barely get wind turbine farms approved because of selfish NIMBYism.
Like both you and Rob, I happily acknowledge the Earth has a finite carrying capacity, I don’t want to get into a numbers game, because frankly I don’t think anyone can fairly say what the optimum capacity is. If we are not already over it, we must be dangerously close.
My primary concern is that a) we cannot address this issue over night, we simply do not live in a culture prepared in any way shape or form to generally acknowledge the problem (though the fact we are having this discussion shows some people are starting to acknowledge it) b) if we rush head long into this we run the dangerous risk of destroying the only viable political party in Canada capable of eventually championing this issue c) we need to be willing to compromise on some shorter term battles in order to continue to build the political credibility needed to start the discussion.
Democracy is great on paper, but it is a slow and messy process in reality.
Anyway, enough for me this evening, I will forward your reply along to Rob.
In solidarity,
Shawn Lewis
Federal Vice-President
NDP London-Fanshawe
www.ndplondonfanshawe.ca
londonfanshawe@ndp.ca
Let’s review Shawn’s logic:
“My goodness, we can barely get wind turbine farms approved because of selfish NIMBYism.”So it is “selfish” to oppose an energy “solution” that doesn’t solve anything? That is a proven failure because it cannot guarantee the delivery of a consistent and dependable energy flow and must therefore be supplemented by conventional energy sources (nuclear, coal or hydo)? An energy solution that does not address the problem, which is the generation and growth of energy CONSUMPTION? A problem for which social democrats and Greens only prescribe “conservation” as a remedy? In other words, a reduction in PER CAPITA energy consumption. As we are tired of explaining, this kind of constraint is meaningless in the context of unrelenting immigrant-driven population growth. As Brishen Hoff concluded in the spring of 2007, the supply of energy provided by the proposed Sarnia wind farm would be mopped up by just 23 days of business-as-usual immigration.
The only solution to our energy shortfall is a reduction in our TOTAL consumption. This can only involve a sharp reduction in immigration, with conservation and technological efficiencies a complement. Neither Shawn Lewis nor any New Democrat in a leadership position evidences any understanding of this.
“I don’t think anyone can fairly say what the optimum capacity is. If we are not already over it, we must be dangerously close.”
Duh. Shawn presumably has noticed the deforestation of his “Forest City” so that it may accommodate population growth. He has seen the loss of orchards so that people may be housed. Has he is also noticed that now London supermarkets must carry apples imported from Mexico to replace the ones once grown around London? Does he think that those Mexico apples, along with other “exotic” produce, will be available when oil-fuelled transportation networks break down? Is not aware that the GTA, the Fraser Valley and the Okanagan, among other Canadian localities, have also fallen prey to sprawl? Is this predicament of losing our food security “optimum” for Canada? Ontario alone is losing 60,000 acres a year of its prime farmland to population growth. At what point would Shawn Lewis and his New Democratic colleagues decide that we are “dangerously close” to our carrying capacity? After we have made this country into the image of NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow’s hometown?
The NDP, like the Greens and the Liberals, want to see immigration intakes at least a third HIGHER than what the Harper government has decided to allow this year. From 265,000 per annum to 330,000 plus per annum. Their famous “1%” target. Since none of these “opposition” parties would dismantle the Alberta Tar Sands project, the bald fact is, this “green coalition”, as it was once ready to become, is MORE unfriendly to the environment than the Conservative government. If they won't or can't shut the tar sands down, they could save our food security by shutting down mass immigration with a zero-net-migration policy at the very least. One new applicant comes in the door when one citizen emigrates. Of course, Mr. Lewis would not doubt borrow from the Greenpeace-Sierran-Suzuki-May handbook of pat answers and retort that Greenfield acreage could easily be saved by “smart growth” measures even in the face of our runaway population growth (fastest in the G8). But the fact is, land use planning is a local, not a federal matter. And guess who finances nearly 75% of municipal and city election campaigns? That is right, developers. And in too many Canadian towns, they have the gall to sit in the mayor’s chair. The NDP knows this, as does Green Party leader Elizabeth May. Yet they prescribe rapid population growth as if it were not a reality.
“… we need to be willing to compromise on some shorter term battles in order to continue to build the political credibility needed to start the discussion.”Is that what “credibility” means? Selling out to the enemy so that the media will give you the coveted label of “Moderate”? For me, credibility comes with integrity, and integrity means NOT accepting something that is fundamentally wrong. How is it that our political culture became so decadent that popularity is equated with “credibility”, and that quisling organizations like the Sierra Club advertise themselves as “respectable” simply on the basis that they are respected by the power brokers of growthism?
“if we rush head long into this we run the dangerous risk of destroying the only viable political party in Canada capable of eventually championing this issue.”
Can anyone believe that the NDP will “eventually” champion genuine sustainability, on the basis of the statements made by Jack Layton and Lorne Calvert to the effect that “growth is good” so long as its “benefits” are equitably shared? In other words, that it is OK to cut down an apple orchard outside London if social housing is built in its place? Does the NDP record in government give us cause for optimism? Does the party of Glen Clark, the premier who called those who opposed the clear-cut logging of old growth forests “enemies of BC”, inspire confidence? The same party that made Lorne Calvert its leader and premier for 17 years while GHG emissions went up 60% during his reign? Who looked the other way so he could reap the royalties of uranium mining? The party that rivals the Greens and the Liberals in their shameless advocacy of mass immigration, the key ingredient of our environmental degradation, contributing FOUR TIMES more GHG emissions than the tar sands each year, as well as gobbling up farmland, threatening endangered species with the subdivisions it requires and depressing the wages and displacing the jobs of the Canadian workers it claims to represent? (cf. May 2007 Stats Can report and the 1985 Royal Commission on the impact of immigration on jobs).
I would respectfully suggest that we would be better off if the NDP, the Greens and the environmental NGOs WERE destroyed, for their existence gives too many of us a false sense of security, an unfounded confidence that our GREEN “WATCHDOGS” are faithfully guarding the environment and keeping corporate greed at bay. But the fact is, they are barking at shadows while millions of consumers pour in through the front gate.
CAN DEMOCRACY SURVIVE OVERPOPULATION?
Hyper-population growth dilutes our nation's republic
http://www.examiner.com/x-3515-Denver-Political-Issues-Examiner~y2009m3d6-Hyperpopulation-growth-dilutes-our-nations-republic
By Frosty Wooldridge
In a laser-sharp column in the Corvallis, Oregon Gazette-Times, M.Boyd Wilcox presented readers with the harsh reality of hyper-population growth. “Population growth dilutes our nation’s democracy” brought a fresh understanding to our current dilemma.
“On March 27, 1972, this nation was given the benefit of a thorough and compassionate effort that would greatly assist progress toward long-term security and sustainability,” said Wilcox. “Tragically, the advice offered was ignored and we are still paying for this avoidance.”
What, you ask, were those words of wisdom?
“No substantial benefits will result from further growth of the nation’s population…we have not found any convincing economic argument for continued population growth…the health of our country does not depend on it…nor does the vitality of business nor the welfare of the average person…and that the gradual stabilization of our population would contribute significantly to the nation’s ability to solve its problems.”
“Environmental and natural-resources issues are constantly in the news,” said Wilcox. “Progress made seems to counterbalanced by reports of additional discoveries, such as endocrine disrupters in water, the loss of farmland (2.19 million acres annually), and urban sprawl; the continuous, seemingly intractable conflicts over saving tiny remnants of ancient forests; and the ongoing efforts to prevent the loss of endangered species. The struggle persists to define a truly sustainable relationship with the natural world.”
Wilcox continues, “What about the man-made resources; the social-psychological-political glue that holds a nation and society together and allows it to cope? What about our most cherished operational myth, the one of democracy, the one we depend upon to assist solving our most difficult dilemmas?
“Alienation from the political process is at an all-time high. Voting in national elections has plummeted from 80 percent at the turn of the century to less than 50 percent today. A well written letter to one’s representative elicits a computerized form-letter reply designed for that ‘category’ of issue, with little personal attachment or acknowledgement of specific questions or ideas expressed by the constituent.”
The higher our population, the lesser one individual means in the mix of our civilization.
Isaac Asimov said that democracy cannot survive overpopulation, “It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution.
But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies."
Wilcox said, “The original ratio (in Congress) was 1-30,000. Not only has our nation’s population increased over 270 times since the founding of the Republic. It would take 8,700 member of the U.S. House to restore that original ratio.
“How much more diluted can democracy get? Is there any credible argument that more people contribute to a workable democracy? If democracy is not working, what can we count on to solve our problems?
“It is time we revisited how population pressure affects overall quality of life in this country, including an investigation of forces that continue to push our population higher and higher. We need to get on with the business of establishing a National Population Policy designed to place the nation on the pathway to a stable population, at a level or range deemed sustainable for the long-term future.”
Finally, “What will our future hold if we cannot gain the political will to do this,” Wilcox said. “Will the already-attained size and complexity of our population prevent a consensus from being reached? Is it already too late?”
Wilcox asks the most important question for the United States in the 21st century. With present immigration-driven hyper-population growth in the U.S., this nation expects an added 100 million people by 2035, a scant 26 year from now. Our children face a daunting future if we fail to take action toward a stable and sustainable U.S. population.
http://www.examiner.com/x-3515-Denver-Political-Issues-Examiner~y2009m3d6-Hyperpopulation-growth-dilutes-our-nations-republic
By Frosty Wooldridge
In a laser-sharp column in the Corvallis, Oregon Gazette-Times, M.Boyd Wilcox presented readers with the harsh reality of hyper-population growth. “Population growth dilutes our nation’s democracy” brought a fresh understanding to our current dilemma.
“On March 27, 1972, this nation was given the benefit of a thorough and compassionate effort that would greatly assist progress toward long-term security and sustainability,” said Wilcox. “Tragically, the advice offered was ignored and we are still paying for this avoidance.”
What, you ask, were those words of wisdom?
“No substantial benefits will result from further growth of the nation’s population…we have not found any convincing economic argument for continued population growth…the health of our country does not depend on it…nor does the vitality of business nor the welfare of the average person…and that the gradual stabilization of our population would contribute significantly to the nation’s ability to solve its problems.”
“Environmental and natural-resources issues are constantly in the news,” said Wilcox. “Progress made seems to counterbalanced by reports of additional discoveries, such as endocrine disrupters in water, the loss of farmland (2.19 million acres annually), and urban sprawl; the continuous, seemingly intractable conflicts over saving tiny remnants of ancient forests; and the ongoing efforts to prevent the loss of endangered species. The struggle persists to define a truly sustainable relationship with the natural world.”
Wilcox continues, “What about the man-made resources; the social-psychological-political glue that holds a nation and society together and allows it to cope? What about our most cherished operational myth, the one of democracy, the one we depend upon to assist solving our most difficult dilemmas?
“Alienation from the political process is at an all-time high. Voting in national elections has plummeted from 80 percent at the turn of the century to less than 50 percent today. A well written letter to one’s representative elicits a computerized form-letter reply designed for that ‘category’ of issue, with little personal attachment or acknowledgement of specific questions or ideas expressed by the constituent.”
The higher our population, the lesser one individual means in the mix of our civilization.
Isaac Asimov said that democracy cannot survive overpopulation, “It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution.
But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies."
Wilcox said, “The original ratio (in Congress) was 1-30,000. Not only has our nation’s population increased over 270 times since the founding of the Republic. It would take 8,700 member of the U.S. House to restore that original ratio.
“How much more diluted can democracy get? Is there any credible argument that more people contribute to a workable democracy? If democracy is not working, what can we count on to solve our problems?
“It is time we revisited how population pressure affects overall quality of life in this country, including an investigation of forces that continue to push our population higher and higher. We need to get on with the business of establishing a National Population Policy designed to place the nation on the pathway to a stable population, at a level or range deemed sustainable for the long-term future.”
Finally, “What will our future hold if we cannot gain the political will to do this,” Wilcox said. “Will the already-attained size and complexity of our population prevent a consensus from being reached? Is it already too late?”
Wilcox asks the most important question for the United States in the 21st century. With present immigration-driven hyper-population growth in the U.S., this nation expects an added 100 million people by 2035, a scant 26 year from now. Our children face a daunting future if we fail to take action toward a stable and sustainable U.S. population.
IMMIGRATION TO CANADA NOW THAT WE HAVE GROWN
The following appeared as the April 4/09 bulletin of Immigration Watch Canada www.immigrationwatchcanada.org
Gov't Ignored Predictions That High Immigration Would Lower Income Growth. Canadians Have Paid The Price
John Meyer, a Canadian businessman and a past-president of Zero Population Growth, is the author of the article ("Immigration To Canada Now That We've Grown") featured in this bulletin.
Mr. Meyer's observations are particularly relevant in this deepening recession :
(1) In the 1970's, it was predicted that higher rates of immigration would lower per capita income growth. Recent OECD stats on this issue show that Canada has under-performed every other OECD country and that the prediction has come true. High immigration to do the so-called "dirty low paid jobs that Canadians reject" was a clear attempt to expand and perpetuate low-paying work.
(2 The move to raise immigration even higher is a "smoke stack era policy" which ignores social and environmental effects. High immigration makes environmental goals, such as a commitment to Kyoto, worthless.
(3 Creating millions of low-paying workers means creating a group which contributes minimally to our tax pool. This makes it impossible for Canada to both balance budgets and maintain full social programs.
(4) The impact of mass immigration on deficits and the environment has never been officially calculated. High immigration supporters such as cheap labour employers (supported by huge indirect subsidies) and land speculators lobby our governments to keep things that way. Canada, now likely a net food importer, has moved from feeding the world to consuming the world.
(5) Canada's accounting system remains cash-flow based. It values negative things such as sitting in traffic and paving farmland because these activities increase paid activity. Our GDP does not present a true picture because it fails to measure much more important factors in our economy.
(6) Canada needs to advance to a real-wealth accounting system which values environmental assets and considers the true and total effects of high immigration. Our current system hides all these negative effects and allows Canada's immigration lobby to control immigration policy. We do not permit the tobacco industry to write health legislation. We should not allow the immigration lobby to control immigration policy.
(7) "Knowing what we are measuring , looking down the road and developing integrated policies are core competencies for a democratic government--as is keeping a full set of books." Canada does not have any of these "core competencies" in place.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GOV'T IGNORED PREDICTIONS THAT HIGH IMMIGRATION WOULD LOWER INCOME GROWTH. CANADIANS HAVE PAID THE PRICE
(Immigration to Canada Now That We've Grown)
By John Meyer
From "The Social Contract"
Volume 14, Number 3 (Spring 2004)
Issue theme: "Richard Lamm: a life in public service"
Thirty years ago immigration to Canada was given its broadest examination -- in a national context -- in the Green Paper. The economic studies forecast lower per capita income growth with higher rates of immigration. Public opinion surveys showed very strong support (2:1) for a moderate population size and for very low levels of immigration.
Despite the clear delineation of public interest and public will for a balanced level of immigration which would have seen Canada's population stabilize at around 27 million, back room policy makers chose to implement the highest rate of immigration in the world.
Now three decades and five million additional people later, as predicted, Canada has under performed every other OECD country in per capita income growth as our productivity has been left in the dust by nations focused on investing in their people. After all, importing cheap labor "to do the dirty low paid jobs that Canadians reject" was a policy designed to perpetuate low paying jobs and their inherent low productivity and poor working conditions. It worked.
Canadians economic well-being stagnated or declined but in simple GDP growth terms - still used as our main social and economic barometer - the economy boomed. Our national policies reflect what we measure and although GDP represents only a fraction of the wealth creation process, much less social well-being, it is still our main yardstick.
Immigration is the engine of a rapid population growth strategy, unique in the world, that no one seems to be willing or able to explain. The Canadian level is twice as high as that of the U.S. and four times that of Europe. And Immigration Canada is working toward boosting levels even further by 50% to 320,000 annually with escalating levels forever as called for in the Liberal Party Red Book. Such a smoke stack era policy assumes unlimited natural resources and ignores any negative effects on a myriad of social and environmental issues.
Fulfilling Canada's Kyoto commitment to carbon emissions 6% less than our 1990 level would be possible if, by 2012, we had the 1990 population. But we won't. We will have seven million more consumers with a resource-intensive industrial base geared to building one additional Regina every year. By 2050, the Red Book level pushes Canada's population to 52 million and our carbon emissions to1230 mega tons - almost 2 times our Kyoto target of 520.
With our current annual level of immigration around 230,000 (much less 320,000), any commitment Canada makes to Kyoto is worthless. But as one immigration policy maker remarked years ago, "The environment is not our responsibility."
And neither, it appears are stagnant per capita incomes or the deficits/program cuts that result from a cheap labor economy. Boosting hundreds of thousands of people into more productive, higher paying jobs would increase per capita income, reduce deficits and bolster social programs. But creating millions of low paying jobs, as Canada has demonstrated, makes it impossible to both balance budgets and maintain full social programs. An expanding pool of cheap labor fuels deficits as well as simple GDP growth.
It is safe to say Canadians want reduced working hours, higher incomes, longer vacations, more family time, cleaner air, less congestion, lower crime rates, and a full slate of social programs. High immigration impacts none of these areas positively. Knowing what we are measuring, looking down the road and developing integrated policies are core competencies for a democratic government - as is keeping a full set of books. Despite this, the impact of mass immigration on environment and deficits has never been officially examined, and for good reason; comprehensive analysis is not flattering. Immigration stands unchallenged, unscrutinized and unaccountable.
Where does the current policy come from? Follow the money. Cheap labor employers are supported by huge indirect subsidies and mass immigration makes markets for land speculators. The immigration lobby shouldn't be allowed to control immigration policy any more than the tobacco industry should be allowed to write health legislation.
Canada has matured and, with 32 million people and a rapid loss of prime farmland, is most likely now a net food importer. Few of our resources are being used below their sustainable levels. When did we change our national vision from feeding the world to consuming it?
Thirty years after the Green Paper, we are no longer asking questions about immigration and are locked in a downward spiral of dumbed down social policy fronted by a very controlled, murky, and detached political process.
The world is entering an era of climate change and resource exhaustion as our apparently once stable environment goes dynamic. Yet Canada's accounting system remains cash flow-based and positively values events such as the Quebec ice storm, crime, paving farmland, and sitting in traffic because these events increase the level of paid economic activity. We need to progress to a real wealth accounting system which values both environmental assets and unpaid human time so we can forge comprehensive and socially relevant national policies - of which limits on immigration are an integral part.
Gov't Ignored Predictions That High Immigration Would Lower Income Growth. Canadians Have Paid The Price
John Meyer, a Canadian businessman and a past-president of Zero Population Growth, is the author of the article ("Immigration To Canada Now That We've Grown") featured in this bulletin.
Mr. Meyer's observations are particularly relevant in this deepening recession :
(1) In the 1970's, it was predicted that higher rates of immigration would lower per capita income growth. Recent OECD stats on this issue show that Canada has under-performed every other OECD country and that the prediction has come true. High immigration to do the so-called "dirty low paid jobs that Canadians reject" was a clear attempt to expand and perpetuate low-paying work.
(2 The move to raise immigration even higher is a "smoke stack era policy" which ignores social and environmental effects. High immigration makes environmental goals, such as a commitment to Kyoto, worthless.
(3 Creating millions of low-paying workers means creating a group which contributes minimally to our tax pool. This makes it impossible for Canada to both balance budgets and maintain full social programs.
(4) The impact of mass immigration on deficits and the environment has never been officially calculated. High immigration supporters such as cheap labour employers (supported by huge indirect subsidies) and land speculators lobby our governments to keep things that way. Canada, now likely a net food importer, has moved from feeding the world to consuming the world.
(5) Canada's accounting system remains cash-flow based. It values negative things such as sitting in traffic and paving farmland because these activities increase paid activity. Our GDP does not present a true picture because it fails to measure much more important factors in our economy.
(6) Canada needs to advance to a real-wealth accounting system which values environmental assets and considers the true and total effects of high immigration. Our current system hides all these negative effects and allows Canada's immigration lobby to control immigration policy. We do not permit the tobacco industry to write health legislation. We should not allow the immigration lobby to control immigration policy.
(7) "Knowing what we are measuring , looking down the road and developing integrated policies are core competencies for a democratic government--as is keeping a full set of books." Canada does not have any of these "core competencies" in place.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GOV'T IGNORED PREDICTIONS THAT HIGH IMMIGRATION WOULD LOWER INCOME GROWTH. CANADIANS HAVE PAID THE PRICE
(Immigration to Canada Now That We've Grown)
By John Meyer
From "The Social Contract"
Volume 14, Number 3 (Spring 2004)
Issue theme: "Richard Lamm: a life in public service"
Thirty years ago immigration to Canada was given its broadest examination -- in a national context -- in the Green Paper. The economic studies forecast lower per capita income growth with higher rates of immigration. Public opinion surveys showed very strong support (2:1) for a moderate population size and for very low levels of immigration.
Despite the clear delineation of public interest and public will for a balanced level of immigration which would have seen Canada's population stabilize at around 27 million, back room policy makers chose to implement the highest rate of immigration in the world.
Now three decades and five million additional people later, as predicted, Canada has under performed every other OECD country in per capita income growth as our productivity has been left in the dust by nations focused on investing in their people. After all, importing cheap labor "to do the dirty low paid jobs that Canadians reject" was a policy designed to perpetuate low paying jobs and their inherent low productivity and poor working conditions. It worked.
Canadians economic well-being stagnated or declined but in simple GDP growth terms - still used as our main social and economic barometer - the economy boomed. Our national policies reflect what we measure and although GDP represents only a fraction of the wealth creation process, much less social well-being, it is still our main yardstick.
Immigration is the engine of a rapid population growth strategy, unique in the world, that no one seems to be willing or able to explain. The Canadian level is twice as high as that of the U.S. and four times that of Europe. And Immigration Canada is working toward boosting levels even further by 50% to 320,000 annually with escalating levels forever as called for in the Liberal Party Red Book. Such a smoke stack era policy assumes unlimited natural resources and ignores any negative effects on a myriad of social and environmental issues.
Fulfilling Canada's Kyoto commitment to carbon emissions 6% less than our 1990 level would be possible if, by 2012, we had the 1990 population. But we won't. We will have seven million more consumers with a resource-intensive industrial base geared to building one additional Regina every year. By 2050, the Red Book level pushes Canada's population to 52 million and our carbon emissions to1230 mega tons - almost 2 times our Kyoto target of 520.
With our current annual level of immigration around 230,000 (much less 320,000), any commitment Canada makes to Kyoto is worthless. But as one immigration policy maker remarked years ago, "The environment is not our responsibility."
And neither, it appears are stagnant per capita incomes or the deficits/program cuts that result from a cheap labor economy. Boosting hundreds of thousands of people into more productive, higher paying jobs would increase per capita income, reduce deficits and bolster social programs. But creating millions of low paying jobs, as Canada has demonstrated, makes it impossible to both balance budgets and maintain full social programs. An expanding pool of cheap labor fuels deficits as well as simple GDP growth.
It is safe to say Canadians want reduced working hours, higher incomes, longer vacations, more family time, cleaner air, less congestion, lower crime rates, and a full slate of social programs. High immigration impacts none of these areas positively. Knowing what we are measuring, looking down the road and developing integrated policies are core competencies for a democratic government - as is keeping a full set of books. Despite this, the impact of mass immigration on environment and deficits has never been officially examined, and for good reason; comprehensive analysis is not flattering. Immigration stands unchallenged, unscrutinized and unaccountable.
Where does the current policy come from? Follow the money. Cheap labor employers are supported by huge indirect subsidies and mass immigration makes markets for land speculators. The immigration lobby shouldn't be allowed to control immigration policy any more than the tobacco industry should be allowed to write health legislation.
Canada has matured and, with 32 million people and a rapid loss of prime farmland, is most likely now a net food importer. Few of our resources are being used below their sustainable levels. When did we change our national vision from feeding the world to consuming it?
Thirty years after the Green Paper, we are no longer asking questions about immigration and are locked in a downward spiral of dumbed down social policy fronted by a very controlled, murky, and detached political process.
The world is entering an era of climate change and resource exhaustion as our apparently once stable environment goes dynamic. Yet Canada's accounting system remains cash flow-based and positively values events such as the Quebec ice storm, crime, paving farmland, and sitting in traffic because these events increase the level of paid economic activity. We need to progress to a real wealth accounting system which values both environmental assets and unpaid human time so we can forge comprehensive and socially relevant national policies - of which limits on immigration are an integral part.
THE COST TO MENTAL HEALTH OF "SMART" GROWTH
The hopeless fragility of the Smart Growth panacea seems obvious in the face of pressure from rapid population growth, developer-greed and corrupt local government. It does not particularly reap any ecological benefits either, contrary to conventional wisdom and the strident convictions of some environmental NGOs, Greens and social-democrats.
Cost to mental health
But there is another cost. The cost to mental health. There must be archives laden with data that draw a connection between population density and various negative social and psychological indicators. What do studies reveal about violent and non-violent crime rates in urban vs. rural settings? Suicide, divorce, single parent families, drop out rates etc etc. What do they say about psychological afflictions urban vs. rural?
It is counter-intuitive to me to suggest that claustrophobic conditions do not promote these problems.
Industrialization as a force to break-up families
More fundamentally, what about Emil Durkheim’s work on anomie more than a century ago? I read his seminal book Suicide as an undergrad. Irrefutable and devastating in its critique of industrialization as a force to break up extended families. He showed, essentially, that rural folks are happier than city folks. Peasants in Algeria did not commit suicide at nearly the rate as industrial workers in France living as they did in relative isolation from broader family and intimate village contexts.
Durkheim's insights confirmed
Now new data seems to confirm Durkheim’s insights. Insights that many of us have when we compare “boring” rural localities with the so-called “vibrant”, densely packed cities.
And, sociology professor James White of UBC just publicized his studies on loneliness in Canada.
As I interpret them, the frenetic urban lifestyle that of long work hours (to meet the urban cost of living), technology that encourages impersonal communications, and the mobility that comes from an unstable and dynamic free market economy, whose investment in social services never keeps pace with the profits it generates, all lead to great disconnections among people.
The rural paradox is that though people enjoy larger physical buffers between them (more space), they also enjoy more intimate relationships with those they meet in town and more cooperative relationships with further flung neighbours. This is not to white-wash the negative facts about intense gossip etc. in such environments. Professor White had this to say about the last two decades of Canadian social evolution:
Among the 45-64 age group, those who said that they had at least a couple of friends in 1990 were 3% fewer in number than those who made the same claim in 2006. Just 33% of Canadians who live in the large urban centres say that know all or some of their neighbours. The number of people who said that people can be generally trusted was, in 2006, just 53%, while 43% declared that “one cannot be too careful”.
One must remember that this in the context of more urbanization during this period.
More and more Canadians, as elsewhere, are living the Greenpeace dream of being concentrated in cities.
A 2006 study from Drake University and the University of Arizona who confessed that they have no one with whom they can discuss important matters almost doubled in the last 20 years. From 1985 to 2004 the mean number of friends with whom people could have an intimate, candid conversation dropped from 2.94 to 2.08.
Losing one third of your close friends is not a statistic that our soft green opponents would like to trot out in their euphoric descriptions of dense urban living in the smart-growth utopia of the future.
Canadian Green Party member, Mr. Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, lobbies for a massive population increase, fed by immigration, so that our cities can be even more packed, just so it becomes more economical for eco-friendly mass transit to replace the private car.
I will take a private car with three close friends over a life with two close friends and monorail commuting where no passengers dare to even look at each other never mind chat. Ever sat in a doctor’s waiting room--same experience. In the waiting room of the medical office in my village, 15 people will break the silence with a spontaneous group discussion.
Face to face communication accomplishes things that electronic connections don’t.
Don’t pin the blame on “technology”.
The anomie that comes just from too many strangers living so closely together has only created a demand for impersonal avenues of communication. And of course, these technologies—blackberries, cell phones, personal computers, in turn accentuate the divides.
Take one example from my mother’s experience. She was born in Vancouver in 1911. She observed that before the telephone became a household amenity, people dropped in on friends across the city or immediate neighbours too, who received them with typically friendly hospitality. Tea and bakery was proffered with enthusiasm. It was common for Vancouverites to carry “calling cards” with them in the event that the people they were visiting were not home.
When telephones became common in the late twenties, all this changed. People became more formal and found reasons to feel impatient and inconvenienced by unsolicited intrusions.
But before World War Two, even before 1960, hospitality and personal interaction still prevailed over the kind of withdrawn and threatened posture that we encounter today in our urban encounters. As a boy in the 50s, I remember loud, vocal, friendly exchanges between neighbours and even strangers while riding the bus home.
In Vancouver, of all places, Canada’s capital of cold anonymity.
Cost to mental health
But there is another cost. The cost to mental health. There must be archives laden with data that draw a connection between population density and various negative social and psychological indicators. What do studies reveal about violent and non-violent crime rates in urban vs. rural settings? Suicide, divorce, single parent families, drop out rates etc etc. What do they say about psychological afflictions urban vs. rural?
It is counter-intuitive to me to suggest that claustrophobic conditions do not promote these problems.
Industrialization as a force to break-up families
More fundamentally, what about Emil Durkheim’s work on anomie more than a century ago? I read his seminal book Suicide as an undergrad. Irrefutable and devastating in its critique of industrialization as a force to break up extended families. He showed, essentially, that rural folks are happier than city folks. Peasants in Algeria did not commit suicide at nearly the rate as industrial workers in France living as they did in relative isolation from broader family and intimate village contexts.
Durkheim's insights confirmed
Now new data seems to confirm Durkheim’s insights. Insights that many of us have when we compare “boring” rural localities with the so-called “vibrant”, densely packed cities.
And, sociology professor James White of UBC just publicized his studies on loneliness in Canada.
As I interpret them, the frenetic urban lifestyle that of long work hours (to meet the urban cost of living), technology that encourages impersonal communications, and the mobility that comes from an unstable and dynamic free market economy, whose investment in social services never keeps pace with the profits it generates, all lead to great disconnections among people.
The rural paradox is that though people enjoy larger physical buffers between them (more space), they also enjoy more intimate relationships with those they meet in town and more cooperative relationships with further flung neighbours. This is not to white-wash the negative facts about intense gossip etc. in such environments. Professor White had this to say about the last two decades of Canadian social evolution:
Among the 45-64 age group, those who said that they had at least a couple of friends in 1990 were 3% fewer in number than those who made the same claim in 2006. Just 33% of Canadians who live in the large urban centres say that know all or some of their neighbours. The number of people who said that people can be generally trusted was, in 2006, just 53%, while 43% declared that “one cannot be too careful”.
One must remember that this in the context of more urbanization during this period.
More and more Canadians, as elsewhere, are living the Greenpeace dream of being concentrated in cities.
A 2006 study from Drake University and the University of Arizona who confessed that they have no one with whom they can discuss important matters almost doubled in the last 20 years. From 1985 to 2004 the mean number of friends with whom people could have an intimate, candid conversation dropped from 2.94 to 2.08.
Losing one third of your close friends is not a statistic that our soft green opponents would like to trot out in their euphoric descriptions of dense urban living in the smart-growth utopia of the future.
Canadian Green Party member, Mr. Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, lobbies for a massive population increase, fed by immigration, so that our cities can be even more packed, just so it becomes more economical for eco-friendly mass transit to replace the private car.
I will take a private car with three close friends over a life with two close friends and monorail commuting where no passengers dare to even look at each other never mind chat. Ever sat in a doctor’s waiting room--same experience. In the waiting room of the medical office in my village, 15 people will break the silence with a spontaneous group discussion.
Face to face communication accomplishes things that electronic connections don’t.
Don’t pin the blame on “technology”.
The anomie that comes just from too many strangers living so closely together has only created a demand for impersonal avenues of communication. And of course, these technologies—blackberries, cell phones, personal computers, in turn accentuate the divides.
Take one example from my mother’s experience. She was born in Vancouver in 1911. She observed that before the telephone became a household amenity, people dropped in on friends across the city or immediate neighbours too, who received them with typically friendly hospitality. Tea and bakery was proffered with enthusiasm. It was common for Vancouverites to carry “calling cards” with them in the event that the people they were visiting were not home.
When telephones became common in the late twenties, all this changed. People became more formal and found reasons to feel impatient and inconvenienced by unsolicited intrusions.
But before World War Two, even before 1960, hospitality and personal interaction still prevailed over the kind of withdrawn and threatened posture that we encounter today in our urban encounters. As a boy in the 50s, I remember loud, vocal, friendly exchanges between neighbours and even strangers while riding the bus home.
In Vancouver, of all places, Canada’s capital of cold anonymity.
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