We ignore this issue at great peril to our children. Population has its own momentum. The first census in the United States, taken in 1790, found 4 million people. Since that time, America's population has doubled six times over, to 256 million. Two more doublings would give us I billion people the same as China has today.
Most environmentalists recognize high birth rates as a problem.
If population is a problem, we must also inevitably deal with the painful issue of immigration. Put another way, without immigration, the U.S. birthrate of two births per woman puts us on the road toward a stable population. With immigration, the relentless increase stretches endlessly into the future. Immigration made sense when we were an empty continent in need of labor, but we are now a continent of 258 million people with 10 million unemployed and another 28 million discouraged workers outside the labor force. Many environmentalists feel awkward about raising the immigration issues because the United States consumes such a disproportionate share of the earth's resources.