A recent news article by ABC Australia raises an interesting issue of immigration being a major contributor to greenhouse gasses.

The report states that demographers at Melbourne’s Monash University fear that whilst immigration is increasing to a country the amount of emissions which are being produced and subsequently polluting the environment are too increasing.

They argue that population growth is the main driver of emissions but it’s being largely ignored by many a government as few are aware of such dangers.

The article reads that “researchers forecast that Australia’s population will grow from the current 21 million to 31.6 million by 2050 with almost 10 million of the people making up the net increase being migrants…As a result, they project that Australia’s emissions will have grown from the current 500 million tonnes annually to 800 million tonnes.”

The reasoning behind their somewhat revolutionary theories is that extra migration will add to economic activity and thus greenhouse emissions.

If this thought proves to be right it could be detrimental for the age of migration and global mobility. It is not merely Australia which is seeing its population numbers rise, many places the world-over are too gaining citizens at record paces.

Critics however have dismissed the Universities findings and feel that international migration is irrelevant to the global emissions as it is merely the movement of people from one country to another. This is a sensible thought as surely people leaving one country eases the emissions which that country produces and is hence balanced by the increase being created in the country of destination?

This is a debate which in a very ecological climate of green environmental awareness and many people worrying about the already evident results of climate change will surely continue to rage. However I think it is too rash to believe everything which has been said and until further studies have been created governments should instead focus on aiding the environment by stopping processes which have been proven are detrimental.