Immigration

Americans are self centered, and for the most part don't pay much attention to what is happening in the rest of the world. Some would call it high-handedness or even arrogance. Others just see it as simple ignorance.

Many Americans are worried about all the poor, badly educated people entering the country from Mexico. They are not aware that Mexico also has a similar problem...many central American people are so poor that they try to illegally immigrate into Mexico and take jobs away from poor Mexicans. Germans are worried about too many Turks coming in, and the French see the massive Muslim immigration as a real threat to their culture. South Africa has a massive problem with people entering illegally from Zimbabwe. People come from North Africa into Spain and Italy. This sort of population movement by desperate people moving out of their home countries and taking shady and illegal routes to more prosperous countries is taking place all over the planet.

These people would not be leaving the comfort zone of their own countries if their economic situation were not so desperate. The question is why has the issue of immigration turned into such a major worldwide problem in the early twenty first century?

In 1950 the world had about 2.5 billion people. In 2009 the world had 6.7 billion people living on it. This is far greater than the sustainable carrying capacity of the planet. Massive numbers of people do not have access to fresh water or enough food. Wild animals, ocean fish, and plants are becoming extinct at the highest rate since the world was last hit by an asteroid. The air of the entire planet is now polluted as are the world's oceans.

In the course of my lifetime things have changed massively. I have seen great improvements in the technology of communication and computing. Cars pollute a bit less than they did 60 years ago. But we have not made great strides in health care, nutrition, world social justice, or the elimination of warfare. In fact many things are now a good bit worse than they were in 1950.

After the healthy birth of my first child in 1976 I had a vasectomy because I didn't want to be part of the problem. At the time we called it ZPG – zero population growth. The ignorant right-wing forces opposing birth control may be stronger now than they were 40 years ago in the 1970s.

Worldwide if we educate women and help free them from the oppression of men it will do more to help the planet survive than anything else. Think schools for girls and micro credit for women. Other than that I think it may be time to begin seriously considering what planet Earth is going to be like after all the humans are extinct.

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