By Hilary White
LONDON, September 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The best way to combat global warming is to reduce the surplus population through contraception and abortion, according to a report from the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
According to the report, commissioned by the radical pro-abortion, anti-human environmentalist group, Optimum Population Trust, every £4 spent on “family planning” over the next forty years would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton. This would outstrip the gains of spending on “low-carbon technologies” by £15.
“Considered purely as a method of reducing future CO2 emissions” such “family planning” methods as abortion, sterilisation and mass distribution of contraceptives, “should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction.” Basing its data on reports by UNICEF and the UNFPA on the “unmet need” for “family planning” in the developing world, the report concluded that if this need is met, 34 billion tonnes of CO2 would be “saved.”
The UN groups cited in the LSE report have claimed that 40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are “unplanned” and therefore unwanted. This, they say, means there is an unmet need for abortion, sterilization and artificial contraceptives that, if met, would reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies by 72 per cent.
The term “emitters” in the report, titled, “Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost,” refers to human beings. Roger Martin, chairman of the Optimum Population Trust at the LSE, said, “It's always been obvious that total emissions depend on the number of emitters as well as their individual emissions – the carbon tonnage can't shoot down as we want, while the population keeps shooting up.”
Telegraph columnist Gerald Warner commented that the proposal to reduce carbon emissions by reducing people does not go far enough for anti-human environmentalist extremists. “Why not save 80 billion tonnes by ending pregnancy completely? There is one sure way to prevent man-made global warming and that is to abolish man.”
Warner continued, “Having generated highly profitable mass hysteria and sidelined honest scientists who point out that the Arctic ice-cap is growing, not shrinking; that the polar bear population is increasing, not dwindling; and that the total human contribution to atmospheric CO2 is miniscule, making adjustments in its size irrelevant, the warming fanatics are learning the joys of coercion.”
The equation of “overpopulation” with increased “carbon emissions” and therefore man-made “climate change,” is heavily contended within the scientific community, with many denouncing it as ideologically inspired junk science. It is, however, the cornerstone of much modern environmentalist theory, including that of one group called the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, whose motto is “May we live long and die out.”
Criticism from the scientific community has not stopped governments from uncritical acceptance of the doctrine. This week, parliament's Committee on Climate Change, created by the Climate Change Act 2008, told the Labour government to scrap plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport, one of the busiest in the world, saying there must be a “global cap on aviation emissions.”
The LSE report's mention of carbon being “saved” is related to the growing administrative practice of governments called “emissions trading,” sometimes referred to as “cap and trade.” A government that has set a cap on the allowable C02 emissions issues “emission permits” or “emission credits” that allow companies to emit a specific amount of CO2. Companies that want to increase their emission allowance can buy these credits from companies that pollute less, meaning, in effect that the buyer company may continue to emit pollutants at the same rate, and that companies that do not pollute may sell their credits to the highest bidder.
Critics of the practice have said that while it has created a lucrative new business trade and increases government revenue, it does little to actually reduce carbon emissions. The largest “carbon market” trading system in the world is that run by the European Union. Carbon emissions trading has been steadily increasing in recent years, with the World Bank estimating that it has grown from 11 billion USD in 2005 to 30 billion in 2006 to and 64 billion by 2007.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
No Such thing as a Right to Have Babies: Population Trust
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08071509.html
Government Must Institute Two-Child Policy says Leading UK Population Control Group
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07071201.html
Environmentalist Extremists Call Humanity “Virus”, a “Cancer”, Large Families Guilty of “Eco-Crime”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07050812.html