This appeal is directed to the Management and Staff of LCV.

On Dec. 17, The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), "The Political Voice of the Environmental Movement", the movement which you represent, announced the release of its latest Congressional Scorecard.

LCV writes

We, at CUSP (Comprehensive (approach to a) U.S. Sustainable Population) - the Truly Environmental Congressional Scorecard, say Bravo! LCV does an excellent job. We depend on its vote selection.

But LCV ignores the obvious, that the most important environmental votes in the Congress are those that determine the future numbers of people in the U.S.

For what are "environmental" problems, if not problems caused in large part by unsustainable numbers of people?

We have pleaded with you at LCV for four years to emulate CUSP scoring in accordance with the well-known Holdren-Ehrlich formula,

I = PAT

which states that impact (I) on environments depends on numbers of humans (P) in the habitat, their Affluence (A) or consumption-pollution throughput per capita, and the harmfulness of the technologies (T) they employ.

U.S. population is already living unsustainably. The evidence is everywhere that it is exceeding the limits of the renewable services that Nature provides. Much can be done to reduce consumption and use more benign technologies. But U.S. population is growing at a far faster rate than that of any other large industrialized country due primarily to immigration and the higher fertility of current immigrants. That requires consideration too.

The main goal of CUSP from its founding in 2000 has been to convince LCV to emulate CUSP. We have always stated that we will retire our scorecard on the day that LCV begins scoring comprehensively in accordance with I = PAT.

The reason for scoring Congressional votes that affect future U.S. population numbers is not only that it is environmentally correct but because it sends a message to the Congress-members, the media and the public that legislation, albeit with other purposes, insofar as it affects population, is "environmental".

The latest CUSP Scorecard, covering 2003, the 1st Session of the 108th Congress, has just been installed on the CUSP web site, http//www.uscongress-enviroscore.org. It compares LCV 2003 scores with CUSP 2003 scores. You'll see how LCV once again gives a free pass to Congress-members on U.S. population votes.

Family planning? LCV generally scores a vote for International Family Planning, never for stabilizing U.S. population.

Migration? Nothing. As if the highest annual immigration numbers in U.S. history don't affect environments.

In fact, the United States is the country where population reduction to sustainable levels would do the most good for the planet. That's because it alone contributes to the atmosphere some 30% of total greenhouse gases causing global warming and climate change for decades to come.

We all realize that it is a difficult step to take, to begin scoring votes which affect the controversial issues of immigration and reproduction. Also, clean score-able votes on those issues are few. But they show where a Member stands.

To find those votes to score, CUSP relies on specialized scorecards, as explained on the "CUSP Scorecard "and "How CUSP Scores" CUSP web-site pages.

I look forward to hearing from you that you're giving serious consideration to the CUSP request.

Sincerely,

Alan Kuper, PhD, President
<alankuper@earthlink.net>

deb_callahan@lcv.org, LCV President

betsy_loyless@lcv.org, LCV Vice President for Policy & Lobbying

Bill Roberts, Chair Beldon Fund, wroberts@beldon.com

John Adams, President NRDC, jadams@nrdc.org

Patricia Bauman, President, Bauman Foundation,baumanp@rtk.net

Brent Blackwelder , Friends of the Earth, bblackwelder@foe.org (Honorary)

Brownie Carson, Natural Resources Council of Maine,bcarson@nrcm.org

2003, Wade Greene, Rockefeller Family & Associates, wgreene@rockco.com

John (Jay) A. Harris, Changing Horizons Fund

2003, Denis Hayes, Exec. Dir. The Bullitt Foundation, Seattle, dhayes@bullitt.org

Rampa R. Hormel, President, Global Environment Project Institute

John Hunting, Beldon Fund, jhunting@beldon.com

Tom Kiernan, President, National Parks Conservation Association, tkiernan@npca.org

2003, Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense, karenkenyon@environmentaldefense.org

Martha Marks, President, REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection), martha@repamerica.org

Bill Meadows, Chair, The Wilderness Society, bill_meadows@tws.org

John Podesta, Center for American Progress, podesta@law.georgetown.edu

Lana Pollack, Michigan Environmental Council, lanamec@voyager.net

Marie W. Ridder, Trust For Public Lands, info@tpl.org

Theodore Roosevelt IV (Honorary Chair), troosevelt@lehman.com

Donald K. Ross, Rockefeller Family & Associates, dkross@rockco.com

Rodger Schlickeisen, Head, Defenders of Wildlife, rschlickeisen@defenders.org

2003, Debbie Sease, Sierra Club Legislative Director, debbie.sease@sierraclub.org

Peggy Shepard, Head, West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc., Peggy@weact.org

S. Bruce Smart Jr., Former Under Secretary of Commerce

Ed Zuckerman, Federation of State Conservation Leagues, edz@fscvl.org

Bill Meadows, Chair, The Wilderness Society, bill_meadows@tws.org

Steve Cochran, Environmental Defense, karenkenyon@environmentaldefense.org

Gene Karpinski, Head, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, genek@pirg.org

Tom Kiernan, President, National Parks Conservation Association, tkiernan@npca.org

Steve Moyer, Trout Unlimited, smoyer@tu.org

Rodger Schlickeisen, Chair, Defenders of Wildlife, rschlickeisen@defenders.org

Debbie Sease, Sierra Club Legislative Director, debbie.sease@sierraclub.org

Greg Wetstone, NRDC, gwetstone@nrdc.org

I've sent the e-mail to League of Conservation Voters Board members and top Staff. Many of the Directors head up or have significant roles in major environmental organizations to which some of you contribute.

We've written every year to no avail. Past letters are on our web-site Archive page. They have almost never been answered. (Schlickheisen inquired once some years ago.)

Please follow up on my e-mail with yours to one or more Directors of your choosing. I'm hoping you know some of these people.

Also consider other ways to encourage LCV, e.g. a Letter to the Editor, an Op-Ed or article in a journal or newsletter, a print, radio, TV, or Internet, journalist, a call-in to a talk show, an interview.

Let me know.

Alan Kuper