Dedicated to the memory of E.O. Wilson and Thomas Lovejoy
May their legacy for advocating for biodiversity become amplified by all who admire their work.
The Lynx (Lynx canadensis) of North America is a secretive nocturnal member of the cat family which depends mostly on the abundance of snowshoe hares. Though the warmer winters brought on by climate change is making it harder for both to exist, Lynx can range up to 300 miles and they also need mixed contiguous forests to sustain them. Lemurs are primates that evolved roughly 60 million years ago and now reside exclusively in Madagascar and a few small islands off the eastern coast of Africa. They range in colors, size and behaviors and are becoming critically endangered. The forest habitats of these two unrelated species are being cut down for related reasons: human encroachment fueled by overpopulation and its continued growth.
Growth is the monster breathing down the necks of wildlife worldwide. Indonesia has the shameful status of having the most species on the global endangered species list. It cannot be accused of being a rich country, but it can be accused of being an overpopulated one. Its current population of over 276 million is up from 69 million in the 1950’s. This remains an unblamed reason the future of the Javan Rhino and the Sumatran Tiger are in peril.
The 1300 or so species now on the US Endangered Species list are endangered by growth of our wealthy ‘first world’ overpopulated country while others in the developing world are being destroyed by overpopulation, population growth and poverty. The threatened wildlife species don’t care whether you destroy their homes for a new condo development or to make way for a rice paddy to grow food, the result is the same. The Lynx and the Lemurs don’t get to live there anymore. They just get to join the infamous list that announces to the world of their pending demise.
I love gregarious Lemurs and the ever-secretive Lynx. I have not seen either of them but my chances of seeing Lynx and saving it from extinction are much greater because we share similar borders. Their future is more within my reach. Both creatures suffer from the successes of humanity around them. Both have less and less nature to survive in, both experience the loss of habitat - one from a poor but growing nation, one from a rich but growing nation. The US is in the top ten of the highest median per capita income countries and Madagascar is in the top ten of the lowest median per capita income countries. The Lynx and the Lemurs have no access to their bank accounts, they just ‘know’ that the expansion of the rich and the poor may be for different reasons, but both destroy the natural areas where they need to live.
Madagascar has been in the news lately due to the horrific suffering of its people. There are many factors, but the one that is mysteriously escaped the media’s attention is the fact that this island nation has increased by approximately 23 million people in my lifetime, from 1954 to 2021. This volcanic island has only been inhabited by humans for the last 1300 years, but they have been busy. First cutting down its ‘exotic’ trees to sell, then intensive rice farming took over. As their population increased, they more aggressively cut down the habitat of some of the most unique creatures on earth. One sobering statistic says that there are now more long-tailed lemurs in zoos around the world than in their native Madagascar.
Here in the US, 181 million people have been added to our country in my lifetime, we continue to grow by over 1 million a year. It is no coincidence that the number of endangered species in the US has grown along with our population. The billions of dollars designated to help them by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 has been successful in saving some species from the brink of extinction. It put protections and penalties in place to protect wildlife and has worked to stop pollution. But those dollars have not been targeting US overpopulation. Perhaps if it had there would not be 1300 on this list. The Florida Panther is protected by the ESA but they are also threatened by Florida’s tremendous population increase and the cars that come with them. There are about 120 panthers left in the wild and 24 of these big cats were killed by cars in 2021. The ESA is helpless to save them from this fate, in light of the over 19 million people that have come to live and drive there since the 1950’s.
Our political reach to curb Madagascar’s population growth, which is fueled by an average of 4.1 births per woman and a lack of cultural acceptance and access to birth control, is very limited. Growth is a two-headed monster. It comes from inside and outside sources. Growth in Madagascar comes mostly from inside sources and in the US, it comes increasingly from outside sources. Just as it doesn’t matter to the Lynx or the Lemurs why their forests are being cut down, it also doesn’t matter whether the growth is coming from inside or outside the country. What matters is that those targeting growth as the enemy of wildlife are targeting the appropriate source of growth. Stopping immigration to Madagascar or stopping high fertility in the US are equally futile, because immigration to Madagascar and high fertility in the US are not the main problems each of these countries faces.
Targeting the appropriate source of growth is the only way we can truly protect our remaining biodiversity. Removing the immigration story from its ‘quicksand’ tales is not impossible. We can love our immigrants and still work to stop mass immigration. When our policies are set by our leaders with other than noble motivations, it’s time to give them another look. Roy Beck’s 2021 book, “Back of the Hiring Line: a 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias and Depression of Black Wealth”, is a welcome permission slip to seeing immigration with new eyes, unburdened by guilt. It is a well-documented non-fiction narrative that needs a deep dive by all who claim racism when they hear the ‘I’ (immigration) word brought up.
We are on track to lose the Lynx and other priceless species unless we work to stop the forecasts of increased growth mostly due to immigration. Eighty-eight % of future growth in the U.S. is projected to be from entrants to our country according to the PEW Research Center, adding millions more to our country in the coming years. It is our moral duty to focus on changing the policies that permit excessive legal U.S. immigration increases so that we may truly have more power to help the endangered animals that are struggling within our borders. Ironically while it is both the easiest and cheapest way to help wild animals it is politically the most challenging strategy to implement. The unwillingness of conservation organizations and our government to refocus conservation efforts towards the targeting of growth in the U.S. something for which future wildlife lovers will never forgive us, and they should not.