British population think tank shames large families

Control Your Emissions

Got your 10-foot pole handy? You'll need it for this story: U.K. think tank Optimum Population Trust published a report yesterday declaring that having a large family is akin to such eco-crimes as leaving lights on, driving an SUV, and tossing plastic bags in the trash. Forget carbon taxes: this organization is all about limiting kidlets. Indeed, take note, ye American families who have exceeded the census-average 2.1 children: that third nipper costs the planet the equivalent of 620 trans-Atlantic flights. And consider this Actual Calculation: one Briton costs the planet an equivalent of nearly $60,000, while a condom runs you, um, far less than that -- a "spectacular" potential return. "A population-based climate strategy involves fewer of the taxes, regulations, and other limits on personal freedom and mobility now being canvassed in response to climate change," the report says. And our search for even a hint of irony appears to be in vain.

straight to the source: The Guardian, Rachel Williams, 07 May 2007

straight to the source: The Telegraph, 07 May 2007

straight to the source: The Times, Sarah-Kate Templeton, 06 May 2007

see also, in April Fools' Grist: New company offers child offsets

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Comments: (8 comments)

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I got clipped after 2.

So what't the problem. It feels the same shooting blanks it really does. I must say it did smell a little funny when the surgeon cauterized.

It's a personal decision but it should be made avialable for free.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 1:27 PM on 08 May 2007

I got snipped after... zero

29 yr old female here, and I got a tubal last year because of the heinous impact American children have on the world.

Also because I feel that inflicting this world on an unsuspecting human being is very close to child abuse, these days.

All the world's problems come down to one thing: the "world," i.e. people.

http://www.vhemt.org

by LaliaTK at 1:56 PM on 08 May 2007

It has to be a choice......

LaliaTK- Zero is a very brave gamble that your personal clock will not tick over. Also, a tubal is much more serious than a vasectomy.

As a man I encourage other men to consider stopping after 2. It's a reasonable idea at that point for almost all men and I think we need to step up to the birth control responsibility.

I am one of five siblings. Mom got five grandkids total. Population growth stopped in one generation in my family.

Hope things work out for you.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 2:48 AM on 09 May 2007
[ Parent ]

Tick tick?

If my personal clock "ticks over," there's always adoption. At this point in time, I cannot justify satisfying a superfluous "biological urge" by causing a lifetime (or two or three) of suffering for someone else. There are already enough existing children who need to be cared for.

And actually, the "urge" is for sex, not babies. I don't like babies. AT ALL. So I'm quite confident that things will work out for me.

Thanks for the well-wishes, and for stopping at 2!

by LaliaTK at 6:14 AM on 09 May 2007

Disappointed

The ultimate environmental problem is population. Unfortunately, even discussing it makes people nervous. This piece in Grist illustrates this. Worse,it condones the avoidance attitude by dismissing population issues with facetiousness. I hope for better from Grist in future.

by nagle at 6:36 AM on 09 May 2007

also disappointed

i second nagle.

by brianbrussell at 1:04 PM on 09 May 2007

at last...

Finally, a mention of the most central environmental issue of all, the one that makes all the others worse, and is a central cause of most of them. i can stop holding my breath now.

i third nagle and second brianbrussell. Anybody here seen those great Nina Paley animations?

i am glad for your contributions, Pangolin, though i have a coupla comments. Your mom was more than replaced. Five (kids/grandkids) is SO much more than two (your parents), or even 2.2 (or whatever fraction just above 2 that healthcare has reduced the statistical replacement rate to, by now). Five (kids/grandkids) is also more than four [your parents plus two ghost grandparents representing the portion of your sibs' collective in-laws' genetic contributions that came into your line (as distinct from through their other kids), if you follow me]. i'm not trying to make you feel guilty (it never helps), just pointing out that pop growth did not stop in your family. Your sibs and you are below replacement for yourselves (thinking short-term which eco folk shouldn't do) so kudos to your sibs and you. i'm always glad for a man to speak out how great it feels post-vasectomy, so thanks. Please, men, encourage other men to stop at zero and adopt. Recognising that accidents and egos happen, please further encourage other men to at least stop at second-best, which is after one. And we'll all help you men, by working on other eco fronts to buy time, so that eventually the two-kids option will no longer require species extinctions the way it does now.

As for clocks ticking, they can be annoying, but taking on that annoyance for oneself is honorable and responsible, while foisting the ecodamage from another human onto the world is neither. An urge to sing in off-key falsetto can be annoying, too, but not nearly as much as giving in to it.

i AM glad Grist got to a population story. Part of my disappointment in Grist is their double-standard for irony. On other issues, Grist is willing to supply the irony and humor (boy, am i grateful for that; good work, Grist staff, on most stories). But when a population issue finally gets into their elite party, they cluck about how it didn't bring its own irony with it. Such clucking serves as a distancing from an issue they should own, and champion, and encourage us all to consider (perhaps using their characteristic irony and humor, so welcome]. Sigh. Hey, Grist is good, and can do this better. Another take on the population issue awaits as a chance to do better. Please hurry, i'm drowning in masses and their effluent.
mzz zotlynn

The_New_Renaissance

p.s. perhaps over-reliance on personal birth control punishes the thoughtful and gives the edge to the thoughtless. We are, after all, subject to the same ecological constraints as all other species: in the absence of predation, when food supply increases, population invariably increases. Perhaps we could consider controlling the ridiculous excess of food overproduction, the same amount as last season so nobody starves. We could do it together so as to be fair. Local food, funding farmers not for their voluminous yield but for their practices, selectively buying organic and small-scale, reshaping subsidies so they no longer benefit BigAg, working against the conversion of wild lands to farms, ensuring the hungry get access to local food unlike now, and simply raising these issues in public to stimulate the creativity of more of us. What do you think?

http://ishmael.com/Education/Writings/The_New_Renaissance.shtml

by zotlynn at 8:34 PM on 09 May 2007

Control Your Emissions

I'm a 56-year-old woman who is childless by choice. My decision to forgo having children during my reproductive years was not based on environmental concerns. However, I now firmly believe that over-population is the single most detrimental contributor to the ongoing collapse of our planet. I also believe that no woman should have more than two children, period.

And, Grist, your attitude regarding this topic--at least as expressed relevant to the subject article--was appalling.

by bxlamann at 12:41 PM on 18 May 2007

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