Friday, August 15, 2008
Study: Immigration to U.S. Increases Global Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
Posted ByDaniela at 01:04 AM |
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A study by the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration group, has found that
immigration to the United States increases global greenhouse gas emissions.
The press release shared these bullet points (click on the link for more):
- The estimated CO2 emissions of the average immigrant (legal or illegal) in the United States are 18 percent less than those of the average native-born American.
- However, immigrants in the United States produce an estimated four times more CO2 in the United States as they would have in their countries of origin.
- U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually -- equal to Great Britain and Sweden combined.
- The estimated 637 million tons of CO2 U.S. immigrants produce annually is 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries.
- If the 482-million-ton increase in global CO2 emissions caused by immigration to the United States were a separate country, it would rank 10th in the world in emissions.
- The impact of immigration to the United States on global emissions is equal to approximately 5 percent of the increase in annual world-wide CO2 emissions since 1980.
- Of the CO2 emissions caused by immigrants, 83 percent are estimated to come from legal immigrants and 17 percent from illegal immigrants.
- Legal immigrants have a much larger impact because they are more numerous than illegal immigrants and because they have higher incomes, and thus higher emissions.
