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| There is nowhere to run, Earth is full |
Decades of ignoring the converging crises of climate change,
ecosystem loss, nationalism, and inequity are reaching their logical
conclusion as Europe and America are threatened with inundation by
desperate peoples. Not all who wish to come will be able to be housed,
and certainly not those arriving illegally, without pulling down host
societies. Yet we must hold onto our humanity and work for global
justice and ecological sustainability. It is the rich nation’s
responsibility to stop ravaging developing nations’ environments, and
learn to share including providing massive development aid in place. Or
the biosphere collapses and we all die after enduring a dark era of
unbearable authoritarian fascism.
Mass destabilizing migration is what you get when
religion tells you to have ever more children. You get mass unruly
migration when a handful of individuals have seized half of Earth’s
wealth as billions live in abject poverty on a couple dollars a day. The
inevitable outcome of clearance of natural forests, fouling of water,
and exponential growth in human population and total consumption is
ecocidal mass migration. — Dr. Glen Barry
Illegal immigration is, well, illegal. And it is not sustainable.
Though absolute immigration numbers rise and fall at any given moment,
the trend is clear that a variety of crises are leading globally to an
unprecedented level of dislocation from people’s traditional homes. The
days of verdant sparsely populated paradises that the dispossessed could
flee to after devastating their own lands are long gone. At nearly 8
billion human super predators and counting Earth is fully occupied and
then some.
In fact, the global biosphere is collapsing and dying. What we are
witnessing at affluent states’ borders illustrates long anticipated
limits to growth, the irrefutable consequences of inequitable
over-popuation, and the logical conclusion of being in a terminal state
of ecological overshoot for decades. Large swathes of formerly
productive land have been laid to waste by the combined forces of too
many people, global warming, natural ecosystem destruction, and
over-intensive land utilization. This ecological decline combined with
centuries of neo-colonialist resource thievery has made large areas of
the world ungovernable.
Continued mass movements of refugees and economic migrants from the
periphery into the world’s prosperous regions reflect the convergence of
a perfect storm. Abrupt climate change, ecosystem collapse, grotesque
inequity, continued neo-colonialism, nationalistic perma-war, and first
and foremost over-population are all reflected in the streams of
refugees to Europe and America. There are nearly 70 million refugees who
have been forcefully displaced from their homes worldwide and many more
choosing voluntarily to migrate in search of economic opportunity.
The imperial powers cannot house all the citizens of failed states
and ecosystems (even though much of the suffering is at their hands).
Trying will overrun liberal democracy and lead to authoritarian
responses. Yet we must not lose our humanity and turn our backs on
suffering of others. Our best response to mass migration is to stop
destroying developing nations’ environments as the foundation of our
economic system, dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and
sum consumption immediately, discontinue our state of perma-war to
ensure easy access to resources, and provide sizeable development aid to
support meeting basic human needs in place. This includes a well-funded
program of massive ecosystem restoration that will employ large
numbers. And educating all girls as well as boys, as provide free birth
control, is long overdue to stabilize and then reduce human numbers.
Europe and America sharing their ill-gotten wealth with other nations
to provide for security, environment, education, justice, and jobs; to
make it worthwhile to stay in place, is the only immigration solution
that will work. There is no other way to shared well-being.
Far more is at stake than providing for economic advancement and
safety from persecution for those fleeing failed states and ecosystems,
and legitimate (though often needlessly racist) desires to maintain
existing cultural heritages and jobs. Continued exploitation of cheap
migrant labor is not justification for abdicating the rule of law or
allowing haphazard flows of human beings into an area where many do not
welcome the influx. The future of humanity is threatened as we are
poised for a final apocalyptic collapse into nothingness unless we learn
to equitably share, sustain ecosystems, and make peace.
Mass migration overwhelming America and Europe is a symptom of all
that ails Western pseudo-democratic capitalism. In a globalized world
everyone shares problems. For centuries Western thought has subjugated
and persecuted other cultures, as our ravenous appetite for resources
laid to ruin natural ecosystems. Developing nations’ landscapes are
strewn with the wreckage of the over-developed world’s resource
gluttony. Ironically some of the most culturally advanced political
institutions and works of human self-expression have arisen from this
thievery. Despite the over-developed world never having quite lived up
to the false exceptionalist rhetoric, there is much that is good and
noble in tolerant societies based upon free self-expression that must be
maintained to avoid another totalitarian dark age.
Near zero tolerance may well be required to make clear that rampant
illegal migration is not acceptable. But not President Trump’s seizing
of children from their parents, which is clearly fascism and crosses the
line. Racism and demagoguery will not turn back the tide of
demographics. And there is nothing progressive in sending the message
that all the world’s downtrodden are welcome to overrun some of Earth’s
last prosperous and relatively well governed regions.
There are few things as sad as serial child-abuser Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin,
Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus,
proposing legislation to end enforcement of immigration law given his
history of traveling to Costa Rica to sexually abuse kids (wonder if any
victims became migrants, a lot easier to prey upon if they are here).
Neither far-right authoritarian thuggery or far-left sanctimonious
elitism will resolve immigration concerns, the answer lies in the
political center.
While believing firmly in the ideal of the unity of the human race
and global citizenry, no one’s interests are served by continued
acceptance of the cycle of land degradation and poor governance leading
to widespread movement into other areas to repeat yet again the ecocidal
pattern dismantling the shared global environment. More people
embracing the Western throw-away culture of over-consumption is not the
answer. As signs of biosphere collapse emerge we are each called upon to
make sustainable livelihoods in our own bioregions as there is truly
nowhere to flee.
Rarely if ever have the pundits and politicians failed so miserably
to diagnose a social issues’ roots as they have done with immigration.
The very same people who want to build the wall not only deny the
scientific truths of climate change and environmental decline, they are
loathe to spend a relative pittance on helping neighboring nations
develop sustainably so there is no need to flee. America and Europe have
long pillaged other nations and the bill is due. The U.S. spends 1% of
its budget or about $50 billion on foreign aid, much of that military
assistance. While at the same time in 2017 America spent $610 billion on
the military. It is arguable which has kept us safer.
Mass destabilizing migration is what you get when religion tells you
to have ever more children. You get mass unruly migration when a handful
of individuals have seized half of Earth’s wealth as billions live in
abject poverty on a couple dollars a day. The inevitable outcome of
clearance of natural forests, fouling of water, and exponential growth
in human population and total consumption is ecocidal mass migration.
Desperate people seeking to survive have to go somewhere. In a world
of abrupt climate change and collapsed ecosystems anyone of us could
become a refugee at any moment. Yay but for the grace of Gaia there go
you and I. If we leave no options for recovery and self-advancement,
desperation will lead to mass floods of humanity at our door step, and a
state of anarchy and war which cannot be won.
All children are going to die if we don’t change.
We can respond with inhumane fascist authoritarianism, or welcome the
flood as we willfully descend into chaos. Or we can hold onto our
humanity and way of life, and together get at the root causes of
inequitable injustice, while securing our borders. We can expand our
foreign aid by several billion, or spend orders of magnitudes more
building walls, to avoid the Western civilization we cherish from being
overwhelmed. Perhaps we should do both.
I have experienced first hand the cultural uncomfortableness
associated with the unregulated influx of refugees. As my wife and I
raised a family in Madison, Wisconsin, a large family of migrants
occupied the house across the street from us in our quiet residential
neighborhood. At least a couple dozen people lived in the small house,
and half a dozen cars were put on blocks to fix in the street and
driveway. On numerous occasions I asked the new arrivals to not do their
auto repair on the streets, to no avail. One late night one of the cars
being worked upon exploded and nearly burnt down our home with us
asleep inside. No apologies were forthcoming. From this one coincidental
incident, I understand the unease as large numbers of outsiders with
different social norms flood our neighborhoods. This has nothing to do
with race — I have been in a multi-cultural relationship for all my
adult life — it is about illegal entry into the country followed by an
unwillingness to accept and abide by cultural norms. And an
understanding that not everyone that wants to come to America can be
accommodated without diminishing and possibly destroying the greatest
imperfect country in human history.
We must be under no illusions. Much of the concern about immigration
is thinly veiled racism bereft of understanding regarding the ecological
and socio-political underpinnings of mass human movement. Yet real
concerns regarding the environmental, social, economic, and cultural
impacts of illegal migration exist. And it is clearly impossible for the
2 billion people globally living in abject poverty to be housed within
the developing world without entirely destroying political stability and
economic well-being.
Unless we are willing to take broad-based measures to share, cut
emissions, nurture ecosystems, and stop murdering each other for
resources; Europe and America will be overrun by migrant hordes and fall
into the bad sort of anarchy. Without centers of prosperity it is very
unlikely we will achieve the technology, shared well-being, and
political will to avoid abrupt climate change and biosphere collapse. We
get at the root causes of why so many people are fleeing failed lands
and governments and help remedy those factors, or all of Western
civilization (such as it is) and our one shared environment are lost
forever.
