Environment activists in Wisconsin are missing the bigger picture

The Cap Times' Paul Fanlund wrote Aug. 31 that Americans should “stop whining and get off their tushes” if they’re serious about protecting the environment.

Does Fanlund mean in the same manner as millions of Americans did in the 1960s and early 1970s, when they lined up behind Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson to address population growth?  (Remember, too, the Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth and the American Future that concluded in 1972 that there was no “convincing economic argument for continued population growth.”)

Back then, our population was about 205 million people; today it is 328.5 million and headed toward 600 million by 2100, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  So what happened?

Well, in a word, immigration.  Thanks to our irresponsible federal government aided by an equally derelict media and apathetic citizenry, our annual legal immigration rate has quadrupled to more than 1 million people since 1990 and now represents nearly 90 percent of our population growth, says the Pew Research Center.

But here's the thing:  Why worry about Wisconsin’s environment when the rest of the country is headed for the ecological compost heap thanks to our unsustainable population growth?   How are we supposed to protect the state’s natural beauty when more and more of our tax dollars are needed to upgrade crumbling infrastructure, support an exploding school population, healthcare facilities, etc.?  But let’s say we are able to pull this off.  What then?   Will residents of the other 49 states find us so attractive that they will pack up and head for Wisconsin in search of a better life?  In order to accommodate all of our new neighbors, we will have to say good-by to the many good fishing and hunting areas in "America's Dairyland."  And horror of horrors:  We'll undoubtedly have to bulldoze the touristy Wisconsin Dells in order to build more housing to accommodate the rest of the country.

I’m tired of saying this, but Gaylord Nelson nailed it when he said people, including journalists, who say they’re for the environment but against limiting immigration are phonies.

Oh, one more thing that today's "environmentalists" say that really fries my beans:  "We all have to reduce our carbon footprints."  Just how are we supposed to do that when each year we continue to add so many feet?  Just how do we convince those who have just arrived from Third World squalor in pursuit of the American Dream that they're going to have to, well, you know, curb some of their needs and desires in order to protect the natural resources that all humans depend on for survival?