Sierra Club rejects nativism

Several months ago Population News reported the Sierra Club would
vote on a measure to change the group’s immigration stance from neutrality
to active opposition of immigration. Voting on the measure took place
in April and the 85,000 Sierra Club members who voted soundly rejected
the measure 60.1 percent voting against the measure and 39.9 percent voting
in favor.

Adam Werbach, the Sierra Club’s
Gen-X president, actually came close to making sense for a change when
he reiterated that, “the Sierra Club should not be involved in immigration
policy.”

Alan Kuper, a Sierra Club member
who helped organize the vote, lamented the horrors that will befall the
world from Sierra Club’s refusal to take a stand against immigration.
“It’s a terrible loss because it means another year,” said Kuper.
“When you have great population growth, it’s a great burden on the
natural resource base.”

Even assuming Kuper’s claim is
true, exactly what is the connection with immigration? Kuper and his nativist
friends seem to think that a) the United States is currently overpopulated
and cannot possibly hold more people and b) that immigration somehow encourages
population growth in other countries. Both positions are unsupported by
the available evidence. Lets hope that this sort of anti-immigration nonsense
from environmentalists proves to be unsustainable.