Posted on 03/16/2004 6:30:14 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Led by Richard D. Lamm, a dissident group within the Sierra Club, the flagship environmental organization, has been pushing tough immigration restrictions as a way to control environmental damage that has been associated with rapid population growth, reports the NY Times. Lamm, the former Democratic governor of Colorado, has argued for 20 years that national policies leave the country open to unsustainable immigration. The debate has emeshed the organization in a bitter struggle hallmarked by several outsiders and grass-roots members of the club bidding to win seats on the board of directors. Elements on both sides of the issue are dueling for the leadership of the venerable organization of 750,000 members that has a 112-year history of pushing conservation and pollution issues into the federal law. Both camps have issued charges and countercharges, and the dissidents have filed two lawsuits, neither of which is active, according to the Times report. The current vitriol includes the executive director of the club, Carl Pope, charging that Lamm's supporters were "in bed with racists." Those supporting the mainstream candidates for the board contend that Lamm and his fellow candidates are unwittingly aiding a stealthy network of nativist groups that wants to take control of the organization -- founded by a Scottish immigrant, John Muir. Supporters of immigration controls argue that the club's leadership must confront the roots of future environmental crises. Lamm has defended his position, saying charges of indirect connections to racist groups are "right out of Joe McCarthy." Lamm told the Times: "I have been monomaniacal in some ways about how America is ducking this issue. I have a grandchild in utero. If that child is long-lived, she might see a billion Americans."
If they start working to end immigration in our overcrowded America, I'd join them.
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