Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Scientific American thinks construction of President Trump’s border wall will dangerously exacerbate climate change.
Trump’s Wall Could Cause Serious Environmental Damage
The effects of building a massive concrete wall range from increased emissions to blocked wildlife migration routes.
…
And climate activists say that President Trump’s border wall with Mexico and other efforts to keep people out represent a backward effort to stem a tide of migration that would be better addressed at its source: in places where climate impacts are already happening.
Trump, though, had one response yesterday, as he announced an executive order that fulfills his campaign promise to build a border wall: “Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders, gets back its borders.”
Environmental activists say there’s already plenty of evidence that a border wall, beyond the existing fencing that runs along large portions of the border, would be an expensive and potentially damaging climate mistake.
“In terms of climate adaptation, building a border wall is an act of self-sabotage,” said Dan Millis, a program manager with the Sierra Club’s Borderlands project. “And the reason I say that is we’re already seeing wildlife migrations blocked with the current walls and fences that have already been built. We have hundreds of these walls that were built without dozens of environmental protections.”
…
Read more: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-wall-could-cause-serious-environmental-damage/
Words fail me.
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Was the S A concerned about the wall in 2006 when Hillary, Obama, Schumer, Reied and a lot of Democrats voted for the bipartisan Bill which authorized the wall which passed Congress and was signed by President Bush? Of course when Obama became President he stopped the construction so Trump does not need another bill through Congress. Were they all those Democrats racist then if not why?
Democrats are not racists. Together with their own “leibeigenen” press, they are losers of the presidential election in which they have been pulled out of all damp dreams by a constructionist who happens to be a billionaire and now determines politics. They do not like the fact that an outsider takes the iniative to themselves. It’s that simple. Elitist thinking. In Germany there is a saying: some have only imagination as education.
“Democrats are not racists.”
Historically they were. Currently they are the party of identity politics which runs contrary to the concept of judging people by the content of their character not the color of their skin.
“Cause Serious Environmental Damage” Really? As much as the EPA caused in Colorado?
I guess it does have some effect.
Balkan wildlife faces extinction threat from border fence to control …
https://www.theguardian.com › Environment › Wildlife
11 Aug 2016 – Razor-wire fence built by Slovenia is killing wildlife. … by a razor wire fence designed to stop migrants crossing into Europe is mounting, …. The upper Kolpa valley was scarcely affected by last year’s refugee flows, and many … had been a 50% decline in regional tourism revenues since the wall was built.
Fences put up to stop refugees in Europe are killing animals | New …
https://www.newscientist.com/…/dn28685-fences-put-up-to-stop-refugee
Canada is building a wall by imposing a carbon tax on everyone. That will keep out many American migrants and tourists. It will also encourage Canadians to migrate to America where there is not carbon tax and cheaper fuel costs, etc. Now that’s a wall that is very effective and is quite inexpensive. Not only does it satisfy the greenies in Canada, but it does have the effect of decreasing global warming by at least .0003 degrees by 2055. As well, it will decrease Canada’s deficit and help to balance the budget by itself, as predicted by the current prime minister, Just In Trudeau.
Completely off topic, but in need of correction:
Phillip Gareth wrote: “Undocumented immigrants do pay taxes and social security….”
#1. How does an undocumented immigrant pay social security? In order for an employer to deduct social security contributions from a pay check, the employee must produce a social security card. And for what it’s worth; stealing and then using someone else’s SS number is a crime and a nightmare for the real owner of the social security number.
#2. Undocumented immigrants pay SALES tax on consumable goods. If they are paid in cash for labor rendered, they do not pay employment taxes; which robs the federal government of Medicare funds; among other things. There’s a big difference and it’s disingenuous and quite frankly, dishonest to say the undocumented immigrants pay…”taxes.”
Just about the only taxes that illegals pay are sales taxes – simply because they are charged at the cash register. Illegals usually have SS cards with fake or stolen numbers – the Social Security Administration doesn’t care if the number is legit or not, they just happily rake in the money. Why the SSA hasn’t been tagged to identify the fake numbers (they can’t be expected to tag stolen numbers) is a mystery to me.
Illegals also indirectly pay property taxes. That is unless the landlords where they are staying are not charging them rent.
truthNakedStark
Would you agree that undocumented immigrants have paid substantially more tax over the last 10 years than has Donald Trump?
No, if undocumented immigrants had an empire with many companies whose activities would benefit the United States, they would not need to pay any direct taxes. But they would have to pay indirect taxes because the documented workers of these companies had to pay a tax. And the leaders had to pay for their own because they are billionaires, they also had to pay higher taxes for higher consume, and last but not least the workers of the leaders companys had to pay taxes for their own consum use. Thus, several taxes would have been incurred, although perhaps the corporate leader paid no taxes. This reminds me however also to Zuckerberg, Google, Microsoft, Apple etc ,. in Europe. Since there is a seat in Ireland, there is nowhere else tax. And there in Ireland, very, very little.
No
I wouldn’t know…
Donald Trump’s income tax returns are protected by law, (just as yours are; assuming you file yearly tax returns. And just like you, Donald Trump’s tax returns are not for public review (unless he releases them) and not doing so, in no way disqualifies him for ANY public office.
Everyone pays “sales” tax….your point is?
Gareth Phillips isn’t a US citizen. His tongue is forked.
@ur momisugly Alan Robertson.
“Gareth Phillips isn’t a US citizen. His tongue is forked”
And your tongue Alan is also f**ked due to your complete inability to see any valid lifestyle or culture beyond your own border .
@gareth Phillips-
I see plenty of what is going on in the rest of the world, as well as my own nation. I see that you always speak from an agenda, regardless of what the truth of things might be. That’s how you earned the forked tongue.
Trump has paid a lot of property and sales taxes alone, without even considering income tax.
Even at just one percent per annum, he would pay $30 million annually on three billion dollars’ worth of real estate. Higher than that in Miami.
How do you know? he has never released tax returns and reclaims any owed tax by claiming he has lost billions in dollars.The only information is that which has been leaked. When some conscientious IRS employee releases his record to Wikileakes, I suspect there will be a constitutional crisis. We know he is a tax avoider and abuser of employees, but it there are no records of him ever paying tax and not reclaiming it. He did occasionally divert tax claims it into his “Charity” in order to buy more oil paintings of himself, but don’t kid yourself. he is a serial tax avoider.
Gareth,
I know because the property and sales tax rates in the jurisdictions in which his properties are located are a matter of public record.
Maybe you are unfamiliar with the tax systems in the various United States.
There is no way for DJT not to pay property and sales taxes. Totally separate issues from his income taxes. End of story.
Some free education for you, Gareth, on US tax systems:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20161006/REAL_ESTATE/161009921/donald-trump-actually-does-pay-taxes
His property taxes on properties he owns outright in his own name are available from the jurisdictions in which they are located. For holding companies, it’s hard to know what portion he pays as opposed to his partners, but that can be estimated.
What compels you to comment on topics about which you are clearly totally ignorant?
More education:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-has-paid-taxes-kellyanne-conway-229088
I wouldn’t want you to keep embarrassing yourself out of such glaring ignorance.
Gloateus Maximus should know better than to link to any thing Ms Conway, AKA “alternative facts lady” says.
IOW, you can’t dispute the facts which she stated.
Conway has no credibility, no need to. Did you see the awful getup she wore on inauguration day? Not only is she not credible, she has lousy fashion sense.
Your opinion of her personal credibility and attire doesn’t matter. What does matter is that her statement was objectively factual, ie Trump has paid hundreds of millions in excise, sales, property, payroll and other taxes in the past decade, and his employees even more.
When he releases his income tax returns, we’ll know what dirty little secret he’s embarrassed of.
…
PS, what his employees pay is irrelevant. I’m sure he’s cheated more money out of his contractors than he’s paid in payroll taxes.
Last I checked, if Conway says the sky is blue, it doesn’t suddenly turn purple with pink polka-dots. It’s still blue. In the real world, at any rate. Don’t know what world you’re living in.
Gareth.
No, Very few Illegals pay any income tax at all it is a false claim to fool the uninformed. You are probably unaware of the US tax code and the fact that most of the illegals as well as many other Citizens including many younger men get paid “under the table” and do not report their income to the IRS at all. Have you ever seen the team that works for landscape services, cutting the grass of the elites and even many other better neighborhoods. I can say when my kids were younger the jobs they wanted were under the table pay, zero taxes, you might be surprised how frequent. Now those jobs are all taken up by illegals. Every community has a “pick up” point where construction and landscaping go to pick up a day worker where no salary is reported for a days work.
On the other side the few jobs where income is reported, the actual income claimed is below that where income tax is due, and in fact these cases do not pay anything but receive money back from the IRS under a republican plan called “earned income credit” Many claim all their children in Mexico and exaggerate the “bonus” from the tax payer. or other. See below:
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit
The claim that illegals pay significant taxes is another liberal lie, they know it but try to deceive the the fools.
When these illegal Mexicans are claiming their children on their tax returns, are they using the Social Security numbers given to their children by the Mexican government? And please tell me what Social Security number they are using to get the EIC in the first place?
The wall will have crossing points for wildlife, which will be guarded against human immigrants, and for legal traffic.
In built-up areas, the most important part of the wall will be below ground, to block the tunnels running from inside buildings in Tijuana, for example, to structures in SoCal.
I’d like our authorities to go to the center of every tunnel they find and set a timed charge. If the center of that tunnel happens to be under the river…oh well, that’s one tunnel that won’t be re-dug out and used again.
East German guards would have been proud of you Rhoda.
Gareth,
So on your planet people fleeing communist tyranny in East Germany are the same as drug smugglers, rapists, murderers and fr@udsters trying to sneak into the US?
Gloateus Maximus, characterizing the people trying to sneak into America as “drug smugglers, rapists, murderers and fr@udsters” is incorrect. The good majority of them come here to find employment and work a job to support their families back home. Most of them behave in a manner that avoids any and all contact with law enforcement , because they know any encounter with them risks them getting deported. As a result, they often are better at abiding by the law than regular citizens.
Tell that to the sheriff of my county who sued the federal government for the cost of locking up so many illegals. Rural crime is off the scale since Obama opened the borders.
Dunno where you live, but here the costs of illegals in crime, schools, insurance fr@ud, forest fires from camps, traffic accidents, closed hospitals, you name it, far outweigh any possible advantage from good illegal workers.
David,
Besides which the tunnels are used more by criminals than those looking for work, who typically just overstay visas or walk across the border with human trafficking coyote guides.
Unless your sheriff has the proper authority to detain a violator of immigration laws, any and all of his/her detentions are for violations of state and/or local ordinances. As such, asking for remuneration from the federal government is a publicity stunt.
The federal government was remiss in its duties to keep felons out of the US. Instead, it encouraged their entry and refused to deport them when captured.
My county incurred the cost of their crimes and benefits, plus incarcerating them because of the feds’ dereliction of duty. Hence, it wasn’t a stunt, but a serious action.
Gloateus Maximus posts: “since Obama opened the borders” and he posts: ” refused to deport them when captured.”
.
.
.
Too bad Gloateus Maximus does not pay attention to reality: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661
.
Tell your sheriff “good luck with that lawsuit”
Doses of reality for you:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ice-releases-19723-criminal-illegals-208-convicted-of-murder-900-of-sex-crimes/article/2589785
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2844701/Obama-ENDS-program-deported-283-000-criminal-aliens-promising-expel-felons-not-families.html
So, you agree that Obama deported the most illegals of all previous presidents…….thank you. PS the majority of those released were for driving offenses.
BTW Gloateus Maximus, how come ICE can’t afford to incarcerate them?…..Is it that nasty sequestration thingie?
The obvious solution to illegal immigration is to make 100% of any monies earned illegal and subject to confiscation by the feds to shut down money flowing into Mexico.
When words fail you, you have to resort to pictures.
http://www.robshep.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/jesus_facepalm.jpg
“You tend to find a lot of BS, I don’t know if we can call it the other version on camera, so we’ll just call it ‘bad science.'”
Scientific American long ago gave up any pretense of scientific anything. In order to increase its circulation, it tried to compete with Popular Science. Then it became political, and on all issues where it can lean left, it plunges in that direction. It’s sad, but not as pathetic as watching what has happened to colleges across the country.
And has SciAm stated when they will publish their study on the climate, environmental and effect to species diversity catastrophe that is and will be caused by the Wind Turbines? Will this report be released before, after or along with the health effects that these massive multi-megawatt wind turbines inflict upon all animal life within 1/4 to 1/2 mile? Or is that “Fake News” going to be kept buried until it can no longer be denied? There is a local strip mall that has a wind turbine at the far corner of the parking lot. It has mostly trendy “green Lover” stores. I went there because one of these establishments had something I was looking for. I marveled at the use of wind energy when I saw the wind turbine. Within 15 minutes of walking in the store though, I had to leave. I had a feeling that I had eaten something that was going to make me throw up. Several days later, I went back to again purchase the item. Same problem again. Sales rep said that several people have stated that they feel “uncomfortable” in the store. Wonder how much business he is losing? [If you are a denier of the effects of sub-audio and very low frequency effects, due to your indoctrination from the GW propaganda, then I suggest you visit a local 2 MW wind turbine site and observe for yourself the effect it has on cattle and horses. ]
The author of the E&E “Climatewire” piece, republished by SA, is a longtime, rapid environmental activist/journalist. The whole nonsense argument is based on the false idea that the “wall” will be just that — a huge concrete wall from San Diego to Brownsville — an idiotic idea.
They even stir up “controversy” amongst the Architects — who have not been asked to design said imaginary wall — and who are quoted as stating they won’t design it — as if anyone has asked them to design an imaginary object existing only in the eyes of enviro-nuts.
It seems that the Editors of American have all lost their senses or quit and gone home — no one is holding any journalist in the MSM or the Journals to any kind of journalistic standard at all — every “news” article reads like the Opinion Page.
Notice that in at least some of these instances, rebuttals have appeared on the websites of SciAm and others within minutes of President Trump’s executive order being announced.
I think it is safe to say in such cases that little thought was given to their responses.
Not that the ones that they take more time formulating are any more sensible…but at least in such cases it is clear they speak first and think later, if indeed they ever get around to doing any actual brainwork.
‘The production of cement, the material that holds together concrete, is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.’
Would you be happier little girl if it was built with steel? H/T Archie Bunker
Damn you China.
Let’s see:
Electing Trump was a “climate mistake”.
Christmas is a “climate mistake”.
Having kids is a “climate mistake”.
Humans are “climate mistakes”.
Yup, it fits the ideology.
“And climate activists say that President Trump’s border wall with Mexico and other efforts to keep people out represent a backward effort to stem a tide of migration that would be better addressed at its source: in places where climate impacts are already happening.”
Are these assclowns at SciAm seriously asserting that the reason that millions of people from Central America and Mexico illegally enter the US is due to climate impacts?
And just what are they proposing in terms of addressing these imagined climate impacts?
Oh, I know…maybe we could have a free trade pacts in which hundreds of factories are relocated from Mexico, where environmental laws are weak and emissions are greater, to the US, which has far stricter controls on emissions?
Not that this would have the slightest impact on climate, but it would make a lot of people here in the US feel a lot better, even if it was not the lackwits at SciAm and the Sierra Club that had their peace of mind enhanced.
Hey…regarding emissions from concrete…these numbskulls really need to keep up with the current research and findings.
Turns out that cement absorbs back CO2 over time, making either a net wash or even a CO2 sink, overall.
I think we may have discovered why so called “climate scientists” need spend so much money on a supposedly settled subject…they are incapable of incorporating new knowledge into their worldview, and are likewise unable to hold more than one thought in mind at a time.
This idjuts seem to not know the difference between running on a hamster wheel and going somewhere.
Let’s see, walls are imperfect so we can’t build one. Wind turbines are imperfect so let’s build more. Definately NO SCIENCE in any of this.
If all you have is s hammer….
To be fair, they have a sickle as well.
+1 Comrade Cobb
The article’s minor emphasis on the wall adding to climate change is silly, but I agree with some of it’s points about environmental damage to migratory wildlife.
I don’t think we need a physical wall. What we need is to stop the incentives for people to enter illegally in the first place. Employment is the biggest, of course, and Trump wants to make a better, more flexible guest worker program. He has his finger on other big items, like ending automatic citizenship. But there are many others, like free public education and easy access to the social safety net. There should be big penalties for identity theft and use of SSA numbers by illegal immigrants, and a good systematic way of periodic checking. Nothing makes me angrier as a taxpayer than hearing about illegal immigrants filing for the Earned Income Credit welfare payment using a stolen SSN. We could also lower violent border crime and cripple cartels and gangs, not to mention free up room in our prisons, by ending the monumentally stupid war on drugs.
No, we need a physical wall.
Just for starters.
Men and Mic, you are both right. A physical wall won’t stop the determined illegal any more than not leaving the keys in your car will stop a determined car thief … but it will stop those who might steal your car if all they had to do was hop in the drivers and turn the key.
Add to “the wall” the removal of tax-payer supported incentives…
Below someone mentioned those who enter legally but overstay their visa. As a start, a database of those here on a visa and then why not require those here legally to periodically “check in” or be “check in on”? (Heck, I have to renew my drivers license every two years and I’m a citizen!) Miss the “check in” and you are now illegal.
Unless and until the border is actually secure, any sort of comprehensive immigration reform is impossible.
And make E-Verify mandatory. That would take care of a lot of the problem. The system is already in place; the data is already there. So additional costs would be minimal.
Pemex is the largest component of Mexico’s GDP. Wire transfers from the US is second. How about a “Build the Wall” transaction fee on every transfer?
Menicholas, how is a secure border going to prevent visa overstay?
The wall just got ten feet higher!
take some tubes, a motor a propeller and sails, have a plan on the internet, weld your ULM together, and fly over it. there goes your wall. the only reason for the berlin wall to work was that every inch of it was guarded. Oh yes and it didn’t kept east berliners from trying to cross it.
just a wall in the desert won’t keep people from crossing it, you have to man it in order to be efficient. i think keeping that wall manned, guarded 24/24 7/7 ain’t gonna be cheap.
I doubt that anyone advocating a ‘wall’ believes that it won’t have to be monitored 24/7. Frankly, I’d like to see President Trump (I do like typing that) put maybe a 1/2 mile north of the border under military law and let the Army patrol along with ICS. ICS to handle the legal stuff, the Army to handle the monitoring. Also to fire back if those numbnuts south of the border start shooting. Again.
Property owners 1/2 mile north of the wall might object to being under military law. Oh, and the 3rd Amendment to the Constitution might be basis for them to sue if it happens.
Monitoring it won’t require many more border patrol personnel than now, although Trump advocating beefing up their numbers. Motion detection sensors will also pick up animals, but the software is readily available to recognize human signatures, even under a deer suit.
Plus, the National Guard can also get more involved than it already is, now that Posse Comitatus is a dead letter. My friends in the Guard were already flying drug interdiction and illegal immigration missions until Obama ordered them stopped.
And if anyone still had any doubt regarding the link between ‘climate change’ and partisan politics…
One or another aspect of “The Environment” has been a useful lever for them for decades.
Speaking of walls and fences … I wonder how long we’ll have to wait before hearing any condemnation of Saudi Arabia whose authorities began building – approximately four years ago (if the BBC is to be believed) …
Cue continued sounds of deafening silence from all the usual suspects.
+10
You may not have read Trumps proposals, but he is not talking about a fence. There is a fence on the US/Mexico border already for much of its length. Trump if you read careful what he is saying wants a wall, 30 feet high, a beautiful wall, the best wall that has ever been built along the complete border. Now while setting aside the practicality and delusions of grandeur implied in such words, it is a very different concept from building a fence between two warring nations. You may like to consider Australia’s Rabbit fence which is the longest in the world, but it is just that, a fence. Does that break the silence for you?