Colcom Foundation’s research does not only look backward at fifty years of environmental data. It also projects forward, and the picture it draws for the coming decades is one of accelerating pressure on U.S. ecosystems if current trends continue.

The 2065 Horizon

According to Pew Research, the United States is projected to add approximately 110 million people by 2065. Of that total, 103 million will be the result of immigration. Colcom Foundation describes this as the functional equivalent of placing 8.5 Los Angeles metro areas onto the existing American landscape, each requiring housing, roads, water systems, and agricultural output to sustain it.

The foundation ties these population projections to a set of environmental consequences it considers near-certain absent policy changes. A larger population makes the Paris Climate Agreement targets harder to achieve, increases pressure on threatened and endangered species, expands the total ecological footprint, and accelerates the conversion of natural land to developed or agricultural uses. Their grants to organizations such as the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders have helped to build strong local food systems and promote sustainable agriculture practices.

The Responsibility Question

Colcom Foundation frames this not only as an environmental problem but as a matter of civic responsibility. Colcom Foundation’s position is that U.S. citizens have both the right and the obligation to collectively limit the country’s total ecological footprint. Decisions about immigration levels, the foundation argues, are among the tools available to do that.

The 1,300 species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act, the 2.9 billion birds lost since 1970, and the 240 percent biocapacity overshoot measured in 2020 are, in the foundation’s view, the current cost of inaction. Colcom Foundation’s work is oriented around making the case that these outcomes are not fixed, but that changing them requires policies willing to address population growth directly. Refer to this article for related information.

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