Protecting biodiversity abroad but not at home?

The Democrats’ double standard

The Democratic Party acknowledges that human population growth endangers biodiversity and threatened species…in other countries. At home, they support immigration policies that accelerate U.S. population growth.

In the recently-passed omnibus bill — Congressional Democrats earmarked “not less than $575,000,000” to be “made available for family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species.” (emphasis added) President Biden signed the bill into law.

NumbersUSA took no position on the provision (we take no position on any non-immigration provisions or legislation), but the double standard is notable (although I’ve yet to find any media that took note of it).

Why do Democrats recognize the clear connection between human population growth and biodiversity loss outside of our borders but not within?

The United States has a diminishing wealth of biodiversity. We lose a football-field worth of nature every thirty seconds, with population growth being the primary driver of the loss of open space in America.

Immigration policy is the primary driver of U.S. population growth.

Source: Congressional Budget Office

President Biden has a plan to protect 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030. If current immigration-driven population growth continues, the plan will fail. Strangely, the Democratic Party’s position on immigration is not to moderate – as recommended by every federal commission appointed to study the issue over the past half century, including President Clinton’s Commission on Sustainable Development – but to accelerate.

Endangered:

The U.S. holds the #6 spot for most endangered species on the planet, according to Alpha Travel Insurance:

From the same article, Duncan Madden writes:

It’s tough to argue with the fact that humankind is having a dramatic — and terrible — impact on the animal kingdom. Industry, pollution, agriculture, deforestation, air travel and decreasing habitats are conspiring to make it very hard for thousands of species to survive, let alone flourish. And that truth stretches to every corner of the world, be it forest, mountain, reef, ocean, city or savannah.”

Nations can flourish without perpetual population growth

Wang Feng writes in The New York Times:

China, South Korea and Japan are now all in population decline, but this is in part because of rapid increases in income, employment and education. The number of South Korean women who went on to postsecondary education rose from 6 percent in 1980 to more than 90 percent by 2020; China and Japan also have seen big gains.”

Japan’s unemployment rate is almost always lower than in the U.S. Even as the Japanese working-age population falls, the working population has recently increased, because high demand for workers produces high wages and good working conditions that entice more married women and retired men to take jobs. In 2021-2022, Japan avoided the inflation crisis that engulfed the rest of world in part because of its declining population – the reduced demand for any given level of supply was disinflationary.

JEREMY BECK is a V.P., Deputy Director for NumbersUSA