The New Eco Villains

BY EMIL GUILLERMO

There was so much hot talk at the Greenhouse Gas meetings in Japan this week, one wonders if the talks themselves had an adverse impact on the ozone layer.

The problem is that any binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will come at a price. And who wants to pay for mending that big hole in the ozone?

Will it be the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America? Countries on those continents emit just 27 percent of the world's carbon dioxide. Or will the richer industrialized countries pay? The United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan emit 73 percent of the gases.

It is already becoming a rich vs. poor class battle between nations. Of course, anything the good green politicians agree to will be passed on to businesses and individuals.

As we all know, everyone wants a pollution-free environment, but nobody wants to pay for it. It is the basic dynamic of the environmental debate. Who's to blame? Who's to pay? But no matter how hot it gets during the Japan talks, it's going to get even hotter in the United States.

That's because the environmental debate in this country is shifting from class to race. We're about to find out how green our racism is.

This month, ballots are being prepared for mailing to more than 500,000 members of the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest and largest environmental organization. The members will vote on a proposal to endorse a policy to reduce annual immigration to the United States from the current ceiling of 900,000 to a much reduced 200,000.

The drive is spearheaded by Alan Kuper, a retired engineering professor from Cleveland and a Sierra Club member for 24 years. "How can we protect America's anything ... if we don't deal with the rapidly growing U.S. population," he said to the Los Angeles Times. "The underlying cause of our environmental problems is too many people, and everybody knows that. But it is so difficult to talk about."

Indeed it is. Such a noble sounding cause. I can see Mr. Kuper now standing as proud and tall as the Statue of Liberty next to that great environmental disaster known as Lake Erie. He's like a man who doesn't knows what he has done. He just used immigrants as a scapegoat for all of our environmental sins.

And what a great solution. The United States alone emits 25 percent of all greenhouse gases but makes up just 4 percent of the world population.

We could be asking our corporations to help out. We could also be looking at our own habits. According to Californians for Clean Air Progress, the average car emits 441 pounds of pollutants each year. Carpooling just once a week would reduce smog by eight tons a day in the San Francisco Bay Area alone.

But why cramp our lifestyle? Why should we blame ourselves for pollution when we can blame people who aren't even in this country! American Corporations? They must be saints. Individuals who don't carpool or recycle? Exemplary. But Immigrants? The New Environmental Villains!

Who's kidding whom? Kuper and his Sierra Club cohorts are engaging in environmental demonizing.

Why cut back living the American way. Just blame the immigrants. As certain Sierra Club-types like Kuper see it, immigrants are some kind of toxic citizen contaminating the environment. Reducing their entry means more for us Americans, and a guilt-free, pain-free way to go green. The more racist you are, the greener you get. But is the movement really racist?

Certainly, the Sierra Club proposal is a form of de facto racism. The Sierra Club will go after legal immigrants. Not illegal ones. Not the paper-fearing, bureaucracy-beguiling, undocumented ones. The reduction will come from those who actually have faith in the system and have endured the arduous INS process in order to be reunited with family in the United States.

These are people who played by the rules and still face a wait of up to 20 years to enter the United States legally. All immigrants are lumped together. The Sierra Club wants to shut the borders, keep the clean air in, and keep the immigrants out.

Who are these immigrants? According to the most recent figures from the INS, the top five countries of origin are Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and China.

This ballot measure will allow many to see the dark side of the environmental movement for the first time. Actually, the Sierra Club considered the same question two years ago, but a national vote was derailed. This time, Kuper collected more than 2,200 signatures to get a vote. The success of the petition was not surprising considering the strong link between some environmentalists and anti-immigration groups.

The Federation of American Immigration Reform was started in 1978 by John Tanton, a former Sierra Club executive director. This new ballot measure brings together Sierra Club forces with the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, a co-sponsor of the infamous Proposition 187--the proposal to deny benefits to illegal immigrants.

Is green so good?

One thing is for sure, green is white. Lily white. Snow white. Cirrus cloud white. The Sierra Club says that 7 percent of its membership considers itself a member of an ethnic group. This new push to restrict immigration won't be good for public relations.

You want to get a Gomez or a Liu to carpool? Better not let them know you're for blocking their uncle or aunt or cousin from joining the family. Coming from countries where being green takes a back seat to basic survival, the Sierra Club is not bound to help in minority outreach.

In fact, this Sierra Club ballot will only serve to exacerbate environmentalists' overall lack of concern for minority communities. Let's face it, most low-income ethnic communities have been accepted dumping grounds for industrial pollution.

The group could go a lot further by pursuing the real resource robbers. Step up the crackdown on corporate sinners and modern lifestyles. Need more controversy? Take on birth control. Speak out against multiple births. Pass out condoms and diaphragms. Demonize Iowa's McCaugheys! Seven kids and not a cloth diaper on any of them.

But scapegoating immigrants in the name of the environment? That's racism. Come January, Sierra Club members should vote their conscience. Being a tree hugger shouldn't give rise to nativism.

Emil Guillermo, former host of NPR's All Things Considered, is a regular contributor to AsianWeek. E-mail him at emilamok@aol.com.

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