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# A lack of control by environmentalists
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-lack-of-control-by-environmentalists/
- Published: 2005-04-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:39:53.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Promenade, #archive-import

*is their own undoing*

*By GUEST COMMENTARY BY DIANA HULL, PH.D.*

This weekend, Earth Day comes to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, but what’s strikingly different about this Earth Day from the first one 35 years ago is the absence of discussion on the population connection to environmental sustainability.

At Earth Day in 1970, the Sierra Club vowed to support policy to “bring about the stabilization of the population first in the United States and then of the world.” This followed the group’s prior year call “to achieve a stable population no later than the year 1990.”

It’s staggering to see how far we’ve veered from that enlightened vision of the early conservation movement when “Zero Population Growth” bumper stickers were ubiquitous and when every environmental problem was seen as a population problem. Since then, the Earth’s population has grown from 3.7 billion to 6.4 billion, while the U.S. population of 203 million in 1970 is now nearing the 300 million mark. And here in California, the population has nearly doubled in that time period to 37 million — and still climbing — from 20 million. California’s growth rate now is higher than that of India’s.

It’s not just the sheer numbers of humanity, however, that cause alarm. As a country, we consume resources at a much greater rate than the rest of the world. And California, with its already horrendous traffic problem, is the worst place in the nation to increase population.

In recent years, the influential Sierra Club, 750,000 members strong, has struggled with the population issue to the point of ugly internecine war that has not helped move the discussion forward. Yet as Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, said in 2001, “It’s phony to say ‘I’m for the environment but not for limiting immigration.’ It’s just a fact that we can’t take all the people who want to come here.”

Another example of the muzzling of intelligent discussion is the denial of booth space for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) at the Earth Day event in Santa Monica. For two consecutive years, CAPS was summarily rejected and given no chance to appeal by Earth Day LA organizer Jim Stewart, who said CAPS’ “approach to the issue is not consistent with the people and environment-friendly theme of Earth Day.” This is an attitude that negates much of the good work done by environmental groups, because the linkage to population growth is curiously absent.

The reality is that U.S. fertility rates have been at or below replacement rates since the early 1970s, so the population growth drivers in the country, and especially in California, are immigration and births to immigrants. But to some — erroneous as the stance may be — discussing immigration levels in terms of the overpopulation issue is tantamount to racism.

The consequences of unchecked population growth are many — from impacts on air quality, loss of open space and agricultural lands, increased traffic congestion, further advancing urban sprawl, and water and energy shortages. California has lost 99 percent of its native grasslands and more than 90 percent of coastal wetlands. At least 73 plants and animals have become extinct in the state, and more than 150 animals and 280 plants are listed as endangered, threatened or rare, while humans — the most invasive species of all — gain ground in California at the rate of an additional 600,000 people annually. It’s undeniable: At the root of all environmental issues is overpopulation.

We will never prevent environmental degradation until we stabilize population, and we will never stabilize population until we have civil discourse on the issue of limits to growth. Key to that is having a major voice on population limitation with a seat at the table whenever environmental issues are under discussion. (Diana Hull is the president of Californians for Population Stabilization (www.capsweb.org). The Santa Barbara-based nonprofit supports policies that encourage replacement-level population to protect natural resources.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 16, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)