On his show last Wednesday, Stephen Colbert explained, to a roar of laughter, how immigrants cause climate change. Where does he get this stuff?
From his writers, most of the time. But not in this case. The idea came directly from a group called Californians for Population Stabilization, a.k.a CAPS.
Here’s an ad CAPS is currently running in California.
Can you believe this?
Sorry CAPS, but most of us who care about climate change also care about human rights and equal access to opportunities. That’s one of the ways we’re different from you. And if we’ve got a problem to deal with, like climate change, we look in the mirror—we don’t just blame someone else.
Here’s a thought: Instead of focusing on how immigrants create a larger carbon footprint here than they do at home (assuming that’s even true), why don’t you figure out why ALL OF US in this country create so much waste? The answers could come in handy.
Oh, and a reminder: One of the worst travesties of climate change is that its negative effects, like altered rain patterns, desertification, and rising sea levels, impact people in less developed countries the most. If we closed our borders today, our bad habits would continue to hurt people around the world. We’d just never have to meet any of them. How convenient.
Divide-and-conquer: It’s classic political strategy, and it often works. But we’re not cool with ad campaigns that try to pit our concern for the environment against our concern for our brothers and sisters in other nations. Americans, old and new, are smarter than that. CAPS, you can take your racist video and shove it.
Thank you, Stephen Colbert, for calling this out.
