Going Green on Overpopulation
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Action options for concerned U.S. citizens
A brief guide from Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization
Introduction
Overpopulation is a global problem but no international body sets a global population policy. Solution of the global problem requires wise policy-setting and action by 196 separate countries. Informed, civic-minded U.S. citizens should have as a primary task pushing their own government to develop a rational population policy for the U.S. They should also encourage the U.S. government, NGOs and international bodies to support all the programs needed to achieve population stabilization in the rest of the world.
Allies and Information Sources
You can maximize your effectiveness by supporting and allying with a few organizations of highest integrity that have been fighting U.S. overpopulation for a long time. There is an abundance of information on their websites, some put out newsletters, and some have legislative alert systems that make it easy for you to express your opinion to your Senators or Representatives on current legislative issues. Contact these organizations! And join SEPS as well!
- Californians for Population Stabilization
- Carrying Capacity Network
- Center for Immigration Studies
- Federation for American Immigration Reform
- Negative Population Growth
- NumbersUSA
- Population-Environment Balance
- Progressives for Immigration Reform
These are green, pro-sustainability organizations in the truest sense of those words. There are large numbers of other organizations -- environmental, educational and scientific -- that may self-label as green or pro-sustainability, but that in fact are better described as ‘sustainability-lite.’ They generally prohibit advocacy of U.S. population stabilization as a key step toward national and global long-term economic and environmental sustainability.
Some Good 'Starter' Books
Get yourself up to speed on the multiple dimensions of both global and U.S. overpopulation problems, by reading some of the books below. This will change your life!!
- The Case Against Immigration: The Moral, Economic, Social, and Environmental Reasons for Reducing U.S. Immigration Back to Traditional Levels, 1996, Roy Beck
- Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, 2009, Lester R. Brown
- World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, 2011, Lester R. Brown
- How Many Is Too Many? The Progressive Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United States, 2015, Philip Cafaro
- Life on the Brink: Environmentalists Confront Overpopulation, 2013, Philip Cafaro & Eileen Crist (eds)
- Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, 1982, William Catton Jr.
- An Introduction to Ecological Economics, 1997, Costanza, Cumberland, Daly, Goodland & Norgaard
- Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution, 2013, Brian Czech
- Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications, 2d edn, 2010, Herman Daly & Joshua Farley
- Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources, 2013, Dietz & O'Neill
- Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or Be Ruled by Others?, 2011, John Fonte
- Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife, 2011, Dave Foreman
- Immigration Reform and America's Unchosen Future, 2008, Otis Graham.
- Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis, 2004, Otis Graham
- Elephants in the Volkswagen: Facing the Tough Questions About Our Overcrowded Country, 1992, L. Grant (ed)
- Juggernaut: Growth on a Finite Planet, 1996, Lindsey Grant
- Too Many People: The Case for Reversing Growth, 2000, Lindsey Grant
- Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics and Population Taboos, 1993, Garrett Hardin
- The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia, 1999, Garrett Hardin
- The Population Fix: Breaking America's Addiction to Population Growth, 2006, Edward Hartman.
- The State and the Stork: The Population Debate and Policy Making in U.S. History, 2012, Derek Hoff
- The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal, 2008, Mark Krikorian
- Move Upstream: A Call to Solve Overpopulation, 2015, Karen Shragg