Rich Get Carbon Credits for Killing Off the Poor

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. | December 4, 2009

Typical of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, they ran a story yesterday published in the also-very-left Guardian giving deferential treatment to what is plainly a whacked out plan to give carbon emission credits to rich countries if they pay for population control in poor countries. The Optimum Population Trust claims:

Calculations based on the trust’s figures show the 10 tonnes emitted by a return flight from London to Sydney would be offset by enabling the avoidance of one unwanted birth in a country such as Kenya. Such action not only cuts emissions but reduces the number of people who will fall victim to climate change, it says….

The scheme, called PopOffsets, understands the connection [between population increase and climate change],” says the trust director Roger Martin. “It offers a practical and sensible response. For the first time ever individuals, companies and organisations will have the opportunity to offset their carbon voluntarily by supporting projects to provide family planning services where there is currently unmet demand.

The Guardian lamely mentions that some find the idea off putting. But not because they find killing off poor people so they can fly more often to Sydney objectionable, but rather because the term “population control” is so yesterday, whereas the gruesome Chinese one child policy is far more palatable since, calling itself “reproductive health,” it is oh so “progressive.”

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