Immigration and climate change

“Immigration and climate change”, Monterey Herald – July 26, 2023

Starting just by exhaling, each of the almost seven million migrants who have entered this country unlawfully at our southern border since 2020 produces on average about 22 tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas per year.  That means to neutralize their carbon footprint on our soil we must immediately plant more than six billion mature hardwood trees or, that being impossible, install over 600 million new solar panels, each offsetting 0.255 of a ton (510 pounds) of airborne carbon dioxide per year.

How green does that make the Green New Deal?

To ease their consciences, some people like to believe that the carbon dioxide we exhale is offset by the greens we eat.  What more than dashes that belief are that (a) grass and trees likely existed where edibles are now grown and (b) planting, growing, harvesting, packing, and shipping the greens we eat use fossil fuels that create airborne carbon dioxide.

If President Biden is not getting a substantial cut from the Mexican cartels vastly enriched by the migration he makes possible at our southern border, then he needs an exceptionally strong dose of Artificial Intelligence to make up for his lack of the real stuff.

— Ron Weitzman, Carmel