In class blog

Immigration and Climate Change

Immigration is a factor that contributes greatly to global warming. According to Leon Kolankiewicz, in the video “The Impact of Immigration Policy on the Environment” states that “immigration is a part of the equation.” This statement refers to his belief that immigration is a direct result of global warming. A country that has a large population and continues to grow yearly would result in: more money being spent, more technology being used and also more people burning fossils fuels. As a result of population growth, the environment will weaken.

In the process of saving the environment, people are supposed to “conserve natural resources.” I agree with this statement. The more people that come into the country, will equal more free space that will be taken away and trees that will be cut down to build houses or apartments. Referring to Al Gore, Al Gore’s charts of increasing carbon dioxide levels support the ideology that with the millions of people entering the United States and around the world, carbon dioxide levels would increase tremendously.[1] The video “Radiant City: Commute” talks specifically about the massive car usage in suburbia. However, the amount of gas used for cars by suburbia, shows that the increase of pollution in the atmosphere would be the same if not more, as a result of growing immigration. Evidence that shows this is “every year the average North American driver spends 55, 8 hour workdays driving.”[2] Further evidence that shows this is “Between 2-2.5 million people per year in the United States due to immigration and about 90 million people around the world due to immigration.”[3]

This video “The Impact of Immigration Policy on the Environment” uses logos and a little bit of ethos to reveal how environmentalists are slowed of their jobs to protect the Earth because of immigration. Space is not conserved and greenhouse gases continue to rise. Immigration has been a way of life for people to better their life and in a sense, for the United States to limit this right, would mean that some principles of United States will be broken. American was a nation built by immigrants. However, over populated America is not a good thing either. I think that placing a restriction on immigration in the United States and other countries is a way to stop populations from growing. In addition, another idea to stop populations from growing would be to place a restriction on how many children people can have, internationally. At the same time, I think these ideas for solutions will be difficult to accomplish. I say this because immigrants and re-producing life is what helps the cycles of life to function . This aspect of global warming is something I do not think people will be able to solve easily.




[1] “An Inconvenient Truth” Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Albert Gore. DVD. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2006.

[2] “Radiant City: Commuting.”youtube.com

[3] Kolankiewicz, Leon. “Sprawl City.”sprawlcity.org