Mass Migration Devastated California's Natural Resources Over Decades: Study
Immigration cost California much of its agricultural land and had devastating consequences on its natural resources over the past 50 years, a newly published report indicates.
NumbersUSA conducted Paving Paradise, a research analysis study examining the loss of California’s agricultural and natural land due to development from rapid population growth. The September report measured city expanse data from 1970 to present day and found that 91% of land development was caused by steady population increases from immigration.
The number of people living in California has doubled over the past five decades, necessitating development of land to accommodate crowding, the study shares.
The over population from the flow of immigration also directly contributed to water shortages, loss of wildlife, increase in wildfires, over abundance of traffic, and rising house costs in the state, researchers found.
From 1982-2022, 3,740 miles of California’s natural lands were gradually eliminated. In total, 2.4 million acres of land — an area three times larger than Yosemite National Park, was lost to build more housing and infrastructure, the study said.
“There’s been a huge amount of population growth since we were looking at California last and one of the biggest issues is the length of commutes and constant jamming of all the highways,” Jim Robb, Vice President of NumbersUSA told DCNF.
Despite the problem of soul-sucking traffic, California infrastructure initiatives for alternative solutions still haven’t solved the problem as previously reported by the DCNF.
In an August survey of 1,030 California residents commissioned by NumbersUSA and conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, 78% expressed concern with growing commute times.
This survey, enclosed in the report, also reported 80% of respondents worried about future water supply and 93% believe the importance of protecting California’s remaining farmland, forests, wetlands and open spaces from further development.
Twenty-four million California residents have fled for other states because the steady climb of immigration has driven up housing costs, flooded labor markets and lowered working wages.
As a sanctuary state, California has the highest concentration of illegal immigrants in the United States, between 400,000 coming to the state between 2021 and 2023 during the Biden administration, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
“There’s a lot of reasons California is a big draw, its a beautiful state with a gigantic economy, and major welfare benefits but there’s also limited land and limited jobs so it puts pressure on the people who are already there,” Robb told DCNF.
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