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health + fitness news: 26.11.09

The key to cutting greenhouse gas emissions is birth control according to a UN commissioned report that suggests a reduced population could be more effective in easing the effects of emissions on the environment than the construction of wind turbines or nuclear power stations.

The UN Population Fund report indicates that by taking measure to avoid the birth of one billion new babies by 2050, the effects would be equivalent to the construction of two million one-megawatt wind turbines.

"No human is genuinely carbon neutral," the report states. "Therefore, everyone is part of the problem so everyone must be part of the solution in some way."

The report has earned the ire of some social commentators, with an article in the Wall Street Journal dismissing the claims as a "somewhat totalitarian formulation" and saying that its rationale ignores the possibility that one of those "prevented" lives might have been the way to cure cancer or HIV.

"One could equally make the argument that car makers should dispense with seat-belts—the better to rid the world of drivers of carbon-emitting automobiles—or that children should be encouraged to smoke from a young age, the better to shorten the years in which they too might emit untold quantities of greenhouse gas," the Wall Street Journal article states.

"Smoke, Die and Save the Planet—now there's a credo for the folks in the anti-population lobby."





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Comments

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  • wen i first read the heading i pictured mothernature having one massive pms fit thus causing global warming haha REPORT COMMENT

  • It's sad to hear a reputably newspaper such as the wall street journal disregard just a report. Just because we don't like the fact the the number of people on the earth is part of the problem does not mean we need brand the opposition as extremists. it is not invalid to suggest that birth control would help, but perhaps dealing with poverty etc would create a lesser need to have more children, which is the argument for many, for having more children REPORT COMMENT

  • A good proportion of the people in africa probably have the lowest carbon footprint out of everyone because at least they live off of the land (where they can). The rest of us in the industrial world with all our cars and big factories are the ones to blame for all the pollution. I think its sad that our governments seem to be ignoring the climate change issues because the fact is doesnt matter how many children we have soon there wont be a planet for them to live on anymore REPORT COMMENT

  • yes its contributed from all over, the third world countries have the crappest most polluting technology to keep their illness ridden countries alive, yet the more advanced countries still pollute because they are all western and "individuals" who have choice, the choice to drive their v8 muscle cars and the choice to sleep with 50 million computers running and shoplights advertising produce right through day and night - we are all to blame, moral of the story is we should all die REPORT COMMENT

  • i am sorry SAD, some of the african can't live off the land as they have done traditionally b/c the pollution by the oil spillage n gas flaring...where do you think they dump the waste? REPORT COMMENT

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