Reduce immigration; improve quality of life
Letter date:
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Letter publisher:
Portland Tribune
Letter link:
Letter body:
While Tom Shillock (Letters, May 11) describes well some of the problems associated with the tiny house movement, there's a more fundamental issue at play here that no one seems to recognize.
What happens to the quality of life when our population continues its explosive path at the rate of one person added every 14 seconds, with no end in sight? The U.S. Census population clock tells us we have one birth every eight seconds, one death every 12 seconds, one international migrant (net) every 32 seconds.
People don't like to be crowded together like ant colonies. Witness the perennial zoning battles when developers want to build more density into established neighborhoods.
The easiest recourse is to reduce immigration. It is the major cause of overpopulation. In recent years, depending on the methodology used, immigration directly and indirectly accounted for 60 to 80 percent of U.S. population growth.
Our natural environment is increasingly being damaged by overpopulation, which affects water resources, air quality, climate and every aspect of social and economic issues.
Tiny houses are just a Band-Aid when major surgery is needed.
