So will governments introduce China style one child policies to fight climate change? They would if billionaire Ted Turner has his way. And the effects of that would overshadow the climate crisis.
As reported here, Turner has urged world leaders to implement a global one-child policy to save the Earth's environment. Turner wants countries to follow China's lead in instituting a one-child policy to reduce global population over time. He reckons fertility rights could be sold so that poor people could profit from their decision not to reproduce. "If we're going to be here [as a species] 5,000 years from now, we're not going to do it with seven billion people," Mr. Turner said.
Turner's comments coincide with a study from the Netherlands and Finland showing that population growth has an even bigger impact on water shortages than climate change.
Quite apart from questions about how you enforce a global law like that, any restrictions on population growth will have unexpected outcomes. Demographics is working the other way. We have an ageing population. The fastest growing section of the population is 80 years and older. This will have an impact on workforces, pensions and health schemes around the world. Putting limits on the number of children people can have would make the problem worse.
These are exactly the sort of knee jerk policy responses we don't need.
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