Spring 2015 Newsletter
Published on April 2nd, 2015
caps_newsletter_spring_lowres.pdf
CAPS TV Ads Make National News Again!
We ran TV ads nationally leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday on CNN, HLN and BET, as well as in Los Angeles. While we had mounted a similar campaign last year with success, this year was different.
California Population Growth Will Erase Water Conservation Efforts
It’s sometimes easy to forget—amid so many areas abundant with greenery and vibrant flowers—that much of California is desert, or semi-arid, and water woes have long been part of the state’s history. Only through massive water infrastructure projects and irrigation has so much of the state bloomed.
Maternity Hotels
Through a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment, any child born in the U.S. to a noncitizen is automatically a U.S. citizen. Ludicrous as this sounds on the face of it in a world of 7.3 billion people and easy global air travel, that’s where we are, and more people are taking advantage, both individuals seeking to birth “American” babies and operators who are profiting from exploiting this loophole for financial gain.
Where There's A Well There's A Way
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
Politicians and the special interests who own them smirk at Americans’ yearning for reduced immigration rates, and so our country continues chugging immigrants like an immature college freshman chugging beer. Because of this recklessness our already overpopulated country continues piling on 25 to 30 million new inhabitants or more every decade.
E-Verify Opportunity
In March, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Legal Workforce Act which would mandate E-Verify and ensure that American employers’ future hires are either citizens or legally authorized to work in the United States.
Chairman’s Message
Protecting open space lands while working simultaneously to curb population growth is essential to preserving California’s natural resources and scenic beauty for the long term.
Annual Report 2014 Summary
CAPS keeps overpopulation on the agendas of influential Americans. CAPS conducts extensive public education programs, works with the U.S. Congress and the California legislature, develops special projects and events, informs a growing and committed membership, and conducts original analysis and research.
Man Swarm: How Overpopulation is Killing the Wild World
In 2011, visionary arch-conservationist and CAPS advisory board member Dave Foreman came out with a new book entitled Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife. As the arresting, politically incorrect title suggests, Man Swarm was a hardhitting polemic, but not an angry one. In keeping with self-proclaimed “old sorehead” Dave’s own personality, it was gruff but avuncular, and of course it was eminently readable, like everything he writes.
CAPS TV ADS MAKE NATIONAL NEWS AGAIN!
We ran TV ads nationally leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday on CNN, HLN and BET, as well as in Los Angeles. While we had mounted a similar campaign last year with success, this year was different. We got outstanding coverage: an article about the TV ads posted at the top of the Drudge Report homepage for days; an article about the ads ran in USA Today; an LA Times reporter tweeted CAPS ads to her followers and NPR called us for quotes, among other hits. Maybe even more important, coverage this year was more sympathetic. Here is a sample quote:
Lower-skilled workers of any race already have a hard time making ends meet in this economy. But add millions more lower-skilled workers…Why reward lawbreakers with legal status? What’s in it for the average American citizen? Shouldn’t Americans of any race, skin color, or creed come before foreigners, whether legal or illegal?
– Black Community News
In addition, the CAPS story was displayed on more than 130 websites, other news outlets and has already been viewed more than 5,100 times just on YouTube.
CALIFORNIA POPULATION GROWTH WILL ERASE CONSERVATION EFFORTS
It’s sometimes easy to forget—amid so many areas abundant with greenery and vibrant flowers—that much of California is desert, or semi-arid, and water woes have long been part of the state’s history. Only through massive water infrastructure projects and irrigation has so much of the state bloomed.
More water woes are ahead, as drought severity has continued to worsen since 2012. As well, much of California depends on the Sierra snowpack, and 25 percent of it is expected to be gone by 2050, due to a warming and drying climate.
California has mandated that water agencies reduce water consumption by 20 percent by 2020. They’re on track to do that, but an ever-growing population in California will eventually erase the water savings generated by thrifty water usage and technological enhancements such as “toilet-to-
tap” water.
The agencies’ estimates indicate gains will be overtaken by population growth by 2030 when the state is expected to have about 5 million more people than today’s population of over 39 million. And by 2050, according to the California Department of Finance, the state’s population is projected to be nearly 50 million.
A recent story in The Sacramento Bee quoted several sources who talked about being more “innovative” in how we use water, the need to “work harder” on conservation and how to make do with the same amount of water even as population grows. Clearly missing was any reference to limiting population growth.
For a look at CAPS original documentary, “California Then and Now,” which deals with water and other issues, go to:
CAPSweb.org/about/california-then-now
MATERNITY HOTELS
Through a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment, any child born in the U.S. to a noncitizen is automatically a U.S. citizen. Ludicrous as this sounds on the face of it in a world of 7.3 billion people and easy global air travel, that’s where we are, and more people are taking advantage, both individuals seeking to birth “American” babies and operators who are profiting from exploiting this loophole for financial gain.
In the past, CAPS has written and talked about “birth tourism,” whereby expectant foreign moms-to-be obtain tourist visas, misrepresenting their true intent to give birth here for the express purpose of having an American baby, and thereby committing visa fraud. In 2012 and 2013, residents in some Southern California suburbs called attention to “birthing hotels” that support this practice, and local media covered the story. Until recently though, this practice hasn’t garnered sufficient outrage from the public to generate another look at how the 14th Amendment is interpreted or risen to a level to interest the Feds.
That changed in early March when federal agents and local law enforcement served warrants at several maternity hotels in So-Cal. As reported, the operators were the main target of the federal sting. It seems they’ll go down the way of American gangster Al Capone: by way of tax evasion. Reportedly, they pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars taxfree from Chinese women who paid fees as high as $80,000 for the tourist-pampering-birthing experience. Additionally, NBC News reported that the women received free medical care. One hospital which delivered 400 babies to tourists was told that the women had no insurance.
The SoCal raid was widely covered by the press and generated indignation across the country, which may drum up some interest in legislation which previously had not gained traction.
Specifically, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2015 would restore the 14th Amendment to its original intent and clarify that citizenship at birth is granted only if one of the parents is a U.S. citizen, lawfully admitted permanent resident alien, or alien on active service in the military. HR 140 and S 45 would end the inducement for birth tourists and illegal aliens to enter the U.S. for the purpose of giving birth to U.S. citizens.
However, until something changes by law and through enforcement, expect more birth tourism. In 2008 an estimated 4,200 Chinese availed themselves of American largesse for doling out U.S. citizenship; that number more than doubled in 2012 to 10,000, according to one report. But China is not the only country taking advantage of this path to U.S. citizenship. Turkey, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Nigeria are among other countries that have figured out how to turn their babies into American citizens.
WHERE THERE'S A WELL THERE'S A WAY
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
Politicians and the special interests who own them smirk at Americans’ yearning for reduced immigration rates, and so our country continues chugging immigrants like an immature college freshman chugging beer. Because of this recklessness our already overpopulated country continues piling on 25 to 30 million new inhabitants or more every decade.
Two consequences of an ever larger population are growing demand for energy in all forms and growing demand for water.
As America’s teeming multitudes mount higher and higher, and California’s mountains of people begin to rival the Sierra Nevada Range in sheer size, it is all but inevitable that resource conflicts
will emerge and surge.
One such conflict is between fossil fuel extraction and water. In the East, thousands of miles of trout streams have been rendered sterile of aquatic life by acid mine drainage from mined-out, highsulfur coal seams laced with iron pyrite or fool’s gold (FeS2), which produces sulfuric acid (H2SO4) when oxidized upon exposure to air and water. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Deepwater Horizon 2010 blowout cost 11 lives in the initial explosion and caused the largest, most damaging oil spill in U.S. history. Ironically, the massive drilling rig exploded on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. How symbolic and dispiriting.
The boom in hydraulic fracturing to boost America’s natural gas production from shale (shale gas), which entails injection of more than a million gallons of chemical-laden water per well, has also put aquifers and water supplies at risk of methane and chemical contamination in some areas. There are infamous images of nearby residents who can use a lighter to light the water coming out of their kitchen faucets—turning it from a tap to a torch—because it is so permeated with methane (CH4 or natural gas).
In California’s southern Central Valley, where oil and agriculture have long been operating cheek to jowl, long-standing competition and conflicts between oil and water have been exacerbated by the state’s vicious drought.
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle recently, oil companies have been injecting wastewater from their operations into aquifers that had been clean enough for people to drink.
California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, which regulates and manages oil-field operations in the state, has allowed oil companies to drill 171 wastewater disposal wells into high-quality aquifers that were supposed to be protected by federal law.
A rapidly growing population and rapidly growing demands for limited and shrinking resources, both renewable (water) and nonrenewable (oil and gas) alike, will only further exacerbate problems like this.
E-VERIFY OPPORTUNITY
In March, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Legal Workforce Act which would mandate E-Verify and ensure that American employers’ future hires are either citizens or legally authorized to work in the United States.
The online program is free, easy and can be completed in about two minutes. By comparing employee information taken from an I-9 form and matching it against more than 455 million Social Security Administration records and 80 million Department of Homeland Security database entries, E-Verify can instantly confirm an employee’s eligibility. If the information matches, that employee is eligible to work in the United States. If there’s a mismatch, E-Verify will alert the employer, and the employee will be allowed to work until he or she resolves the problem. E-Verify would replace the fraud-ridden I-9 paper system.
Introduced by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the Legal Workforce Act would help turn off the jobs magnet that has drawn millions of illegal immigrants to the U.S. In fiscal year 2013, more than 500,000 employers used E-Verify more than 24 million times to confirm their employees’ legal right to work.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that more than 8 million illegal immigrants are in the U.S. labor force. If implemented, E-Verify would ensure that only citizens and legal immigrants would hold those jobs.
Take action to support mandatory E-Verify Legislation at CAPSweb.org.
CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE
Protecting open space lands while working simultaneously to curb population growth is essential to preserving California’s natural resources and scenic beauty for the long term.
Unless population growth is stopped, measures to protect resources are temporary and eventually will be overwhelmed. But population growth cannot be stopped on a dime. The momentum of past growth, for example, births to recent immigrants, ensures that some growth will continue for years to come. That’s why it’s essential to protect open lands as growth is brought under control.
Examples of successful efforts to protect open space abound in California. A dramatic recent example occurred in Northern California’s Alameda County in 2014. Dublin has been the fastest growing city in the state in recent years, except for some Central Valley towns whose populations increased rapidly owing to state prison inmate relocations. In 2012, Dublin grew by 6.8 percent, and in 2013, by 7.1 percent. Such rapid growth is unsustainable. For the record, the largest numeric increases occurred in the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, consistent with their larger population bases.
Rapid growth causes strain on roads, schools and other infrastructure, which can’t keep up. When a developer proposed building an additional 2,000 housing units in rural Doolan Canyon, adjacent to Dublin, residents sprang into action.
Community leaders with the help of local environmental groups (Save Mount Diablo, Sierra Club and Tri-Valley Conservancy) wrote an open space initiative to establish an urban growth boundary along Dublin’s city limits. If passed, the initiative would require a vote of the people before Dublin could proceed with annexing and approving a major subdivision in this rural area, home to endangered wildlife and currently used for cattle ranching and horseback riding.
In early 2014, volunteers collected signatures on the open space petition, aiming to place it on the November ballot. In just eight weeks, they gathered 3,600 signatures, representing 15 percent of Dublin’s registered voters. Only 10 percent of the voters’ signatures were required, and six months were allowed to collect them.
When the City Council was presented with the verified petition in June, they recognized the popularity of the initiative and instead of placing the measure on the ballot, they adopted it outright as allowed by state election law. An urban growth boundary (UGB) now existed for Dublin.
But the battle was not over. Even as the open space initiative was being circulated, the developers didn’t sit still.
They drafted their own, competing initiative. Their initiative would move the UGB by 1,650 acres across Doolan Canyon and direct the city to begin annexing the area for development. Using paid signature collectors who received up to $7.50 for each signature obtained, the developer’s initiative also qualified for the ballot. The same night that the City Council adopted the open space initiative, they placed the developer’s initiative on the ballot.
On November 4, the voters of Dublin had a choice: protect the new UGB and their quality of life or break the UGB and allow another 2,000 housing units to be built in Doolan Canyon. The outcome wasn’t even close. When the final votes were counted, the residents of Dublin defeated the developer initiative with 84 percent voting against it, and only 16 percent in favor. Rural Doolan Canyon was saved, and the quality of life in Dublin protected.
This is just one example of many success stories that have occurred in California during the past 15 years. Residents recognize that open space contributes significantly to their quality of life, and they want to protect it. If their elected representatives don’t act proactively to save these lands, voters can and will take it upon themselves to act.
Even now, though, the story in Dublin is not over. Several new housing projects have been proposed within the UGB. While not contributing to sprawl, they still would add significant numbers of new people to the city, compounding traffic and school overcrowding woes. But the residents who worked on the open space initiative remain organized and want to control growth within their city limits.
Higher density, while it saves open land, still accommodates more population growth than most residents want. And this is true generally. Most people want to protect open space and at the same time they want to prevent increasing density. This combination is a good recipe for controlling population growth throughout California.
Dick Schneider
Member and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Editor’s Note: Dick Schneider worked closely with the groups who, succeeded in saving this vital open space. Also at the 90th Anniversary banquet for the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter, Dick received the “Acre by Acre Award for Land Conservation” in recognition of the numerous campaigns that he has have been involved with the past 15 years.
ANNUAL REPORT 2014 SUMMARY
CAPS MISSION STATEMENT
Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) works to formulate and advance policies and programs designed to stabilize the
population of California, the U.S. and the world at levels which will preserve the environment and a good quality of life for all.
With members in every state, CAPS works to keep overpopulation on the minds of Americans. We create truth-telling campaigns to educate the media, public and policymakers about overpopulation’s causes, impacts and solutions. Because most environmental and population organizations have abrogated their responsibility to oppose unrelenting U.S. population growth, CAPS fills this critical gap. CAPS is also unique among immigration reduction organizations as we advocate for a sustainable family size. Our campaigns are part of a long-term commitment to address overpopulation. We’re in it for the long haul. As one of our generous monthly donors, L.H. in Minnesota, puts it:
“I like to help CAPS during a period of many uphill battles. At some point, the public will catch on and CAPS needs to be around for that day.”
CAPS FAST FACTS BY THE NUMBERS
- Reached Americans 501,800,000 times through TV and radio
- Campaigns targeted 4.6 million TV viewers and radio listeners weekly
- CAPS activists signed 30,983 petitions delivered to legislators
- • CAPS action alert membership increased by 12%
- 69% increase in unique CAPSweb.org visitors, with Google AdWords garnering 1.4 million impressions
- 650 media interviews given
- 220,000 YouTube views
- CAPS’ Facebook army up 6,150%, reaching an average of 35,000 people per day
- CAPS’ Twitter followers up 1,301%
- 312 blog posts written and picked up by outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, Daily Caller and Huffington Post
IN ADDITION TO HARD-HITTING AD CAMPAIGNS, HERE ARE OTHER WAYS YOUR ACTIVISM AND DOLLARS MADE A DIFFERENCE IN 2014.
1. You made certain S.744—the Senate’s overpopulation/amnesty bill—never saw the light of day in the House. This is no small feat. Your funding and activism stopped the legalization of 11 million+ illegal aliens and the disastrous doubling of legal immigration.
2. You made the House of Representatives listen and pass tough border bills in response to the Central American border surge.
3. You leaned on Republicans in the new Congress, causing ALL of them to vote to defund the Obama Administration’s unconstitutional Executive Amnesty.
4. Although many terrible laws were unfortunately passed at the state level, you made sure California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed legislation to allow illegal aliens on juries.
5. And right here at CAPS headquarters, CAPS’ activists participated in a rally to support the local newspaper in the use of the word “illegals” in their headline after pro-amnesty supporters demanded the paper retract its headline and even vandalized the newspaper building with graffiti. The newspaper held firm and did not retract its headline thanks to CAPS’ activism!
6. You made immigration MATTER in the 2014 mid-term elections.
7. In late November, just prior to the President’s executive actions, you participated in an extensive patch-through phone call campaign to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, Calif. After hearing from thousands of CAPS activists, McCarthy tweeted in response to President Obama’s executive actions: “It is our obligation & responsibility to fight this brazen power grab that doesn’t solve the real problems.”
8. Your voice inspired 26 of our states to reject President Obama’s executive amnesty and join a lawsuit.
9. Your gifts enabled CAPS to win young hearts and minds by launching the CROWDIFORNIA video scholarship contest for high school and college students.
10. Your support helped launch a pilot program–CAPS’ College Outreach Program at Cal State Northridge, UCLA, UCSB and more universities in the works!
11. You funded our original 20-minute documentary: The California We Are Losing–Views of Our Golden State from Pristine to Imperiled, prompting those who treasure California to help preserve our beautiful state.
12. Your donations showcased renowned speakers all year long, including PBS’ Bonnie Erbe on birth tourism and the Rewilding Institute’s Dave Foreman on why environmentalists should care about immigration.
13. You funded demographic data analysis uncovering that nearly 100 percent of California’s population growth between 2000 and 2010 was from immigration and births to immigrants.
14. Your gifts funded all of CAPS’ committed and tireless activists (many of whom kindly let us know that they do not have the discretionary income, but wish they did, to donate to CAPS), who sent thousands of messages, petitions and letters and made thousands of calls to legislators.
Thank you for your generous support of CAPS!
CAPS will continue to do what it takes to protect the environment and your quality of life. With your vital continued support, our members have the tools to let their voices be heard, and CAPS will have the funds to champion the vitally important issue of aligning legislation with a sustainable population.
In order to preserve resources and use your donation dollars to the fullest, the Annual Report has been summarized for this newsletter. Please contact CAPS at (805) 564-6626 or [email protected] to receive the full Annual Report with audited financials in the mail or by email.
MANSWARM: HOW OVERPOPULATION IS KILLING THE WILD WORLD
In 2011, visionary arch-conservationist and CAPS advisory board member Dave Foreman came out with a new book entitled Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife. As the arresting, politically incorrect title suggests, Man Swarm was a hardhitting polemic, but not an angry one. In keeping with self-proclaimed “old sorehead” Dave’s own personality, it was gruff but avuncular, and of course it was eminently readable, like everything he writes.
Dave pulled no punches in laying out the truth:
“The population bomb did not fizzle. It blew up. It’s still blowing up.”
And this man speaks with authority. It is not hyperbole to call Foreman one of America’s foremost living conservationists. Heck, the guy is a legend. He lobbied for the Wilderness Society and was a founder of Earth First! He also founded The Wildlands Project and the Rewilding Institute, and is the author of Confessions of an Eco-Warrior, as well as many other books.
Laura Carroll is a veteran editor and writer, as well as author of the books Families of Two and The Baby Matrix. Laura has appeared on many radio talk shows to discuss social science topics. She has also been a guest on a number of TV shows, including Good Morning America and The Early Show.
In 2011, while conducting research for The Baby Matrix, Laura contacted Dave Paxson, venerable president of the Minnesota-based group World Population Balance. Laura and Dave agreed that Man Swarm is one of the best books about overpopulation in recent memory.
They decided to approach Dave Foreman and pitch a new edition of Man Swarm, one that would reach an even wider audience than the fellow conservationists at whom the original book was aimed. Initially, writes Foreman, “I was pretty skeptical and reluctant,” until he saw Laura’s sample chapter. That convinced him what a good editor she is and what a good collaborator she would make.
The result is Man Swarm: How Overpopulation is Killing the Wild World.
The new edition of Man Swarm is a slimmer, simplified version of the original, and it succeeds admirably in its goal. It does indeed lend itself to a wider readership—one that may be less familiar with the lamentable rise and fall of the population cause within the environmental movement, less grounded in biology, less conservation-driven, and perhaps younger.
There is, alas, a potential readership numbering in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people who fit this description. Importantly, the new edition does not dilute any of Dave’s tough truths or recommendations. The back cover states boldly and unequivocally:
“OVERPOPULATION IS REAL. We have come on like a swarm of locusts.“
…Dave Foreman helps us understand that only by stabilizing and reducing human population can we stop wrecking our home–Earth.
“And it is being driven by one species–Us.”
Laura Carroll points out that New Yorker writer and author Elizabeth Kolbert’s best-selling new book on the biodiversity crisis, The Sixth Extinction, discusses “the results of overpopulation, yet does not use the word ‘overpopulation’–once.”
With the new edition of Man Swarm, Carroll and Foreman more than make up for Kolbert’s unconscionable, politically correct omission.
It’s well worth a purchase and a read. Buy it at CAPSweb.org. Better yet, buy several and spread the word! And the word is that “Overpopulation is Solvable.”
Reviewed by Leon Kolankiewicz
CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
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