Colcom Foundation Looks Ahead to a Population of 440 Million
What the United States looks like in 2065 depends heavily on immigration policy choices made in the coming decades. Colcom Foundation uses demographic projections to frame what is at stake environmentally, and the numbers are not reassuring.
The Projected Growth Ahead
According to Pew Research figures cited by the foundation, the U.S. is on track to add 110 million people by 2065. Of those, 103 million will be the result of immigration. Colcom Foundation translates that into a geographic analogy: it is the equivalent of adding 8.5 Los Angeles metro areas to the American landscape. The upper end of some population scenarios puts the 2030 U.S. population above 440 million.
The foundation notes that 82 percent of projected U.S. population growth between 2005 and 2050 will come from immigration. Models comparing different immigration levels from 1965 through 2020 show that policy choices could have produced a 2020 population of as low as 255 million rather than the actual 330 million, a difference with significant environmental consequences.
What More People Means for the Environment
Colcom Foundation lays out three specific consequences of continued population growth: lower probability of meeting Paris Climate commitments, greater difficulty conserving native species, and a larger total ecological footprint. The U.S. was already consuming approximately 240 percent of its available biocapacity in 2020. Adding tens of millions more residents without addressing that overshoot compounds an already unsustainable trajectory.
The foundation frames this not as a counsel of despair but as an argument for policy clarity. U.S. citizens, Colcom Foundation asserts, have both the right and the responsibility to collectively manage the country’s total ecological footprint. Population size is one of the most powerful levers available, and Colcom Foundation continues to advocate for public and policy conversations that treat it as such. Read this article for additional information.
Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2024/03/12/wvu-led-three-rivers-quest-expands-environmental-research-and-education-efforts-with-colcom-foundation-support
What the United States looks like in 2065 depends heavily on immigration policy choices made in the coming decades. Colcom Foundation uses demographic projections to frame what is at stake environmentally, and the numbers are not reassuring. The Projected Growth Ahead According to Pew Research figures cited by the foundation, the U.S. is on track…