February
1, 2009
COUPLES
who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an
unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has
warned.
Jonathon
Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable
Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception
and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says
political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of
environmental harm caused by an expanding population.
A
report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments
must reduce population growth through better family planning.
“I
am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for
their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how
many children they think are appropriate,” Porritt
said.
“I
think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than
two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these
big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone
say the “p” word.”
The
Optimum Population Trust, a campaign group of which Porritt
is a patron, says each baby born in Britain will, during his or her lifetime,
burn carbon roughly equivalent to 2½ acres of old-growth oak woodland - an area
the size of Trafalgar Square.
The
British population, now 61m, will pass 70m by 2028, the Office for National
Statistics says. The fertility rate for women born outside
Porritt, who has two children, intends to persuade
environmental pressure groups to make population a focus of campaigning.
“Many
organisations think it is not part of their business.
My mission with the Friends of the Earth and the Greenpeaces
of this world is to say: ‘You are betraying the interests of your members by
refusing to address population issues and you are doing it for the wrong
reasons because you think it is too controversial,” he said.
Porritt, a former chairman of the Green party, says
the government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money
from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion.
He
said: “We still have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in