In November, the World Health Organization (WHO) will release a study on population growth and climate change that claims contraception plays a key role in combatting global warming.

One of the lead researchers in this study is Leo Bryant, an advocacy manager with the family planning group Marie Stopes International. He and his collegues find that, though poorer nations have relatively low carbon emissions, overpopulation taxes natural resources already degraded by global climate change, exacerbating the effects of famine, drought, floods, and rising sea levels.

Bryant published an editorial in the Lancet medical journal on Friday, summarizing results of the study. He and his colleagues collected information from 40 of the world's poorest countries about their plans to adapt to climate change. Most of them linked rapid population growth to negative effects on the environment. Since Bryant claims 95 percent of the world's population growth is forecast to take place in developing countries in the next 40 years, he recommends these nations' policymakers focus on establishing widespread reproductive healthcare services and educational programs. The services are recommended because, according to Bryant, 200 million women across the world want contraceptives but cannot get them.

Population control and abortion advocates are hoping that this issue will be highlighted at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled December 7 and 8 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Roger Martin, chair of the Optimum Population Trust, said, "The potential for tackling climate change by addressing population growth through better family planning, alongside the conventional approach, is clearly enormous, and we shall be urging all those involved in the Copenhagen process to take it fully on board." He made those comments in a statement last week marking the release of the London School of Economics report, Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost. That report contained findings similar to those in the World Health Organization study and claimed that contraception is almost five times cheaper than current technology used to combat climate change. "The taboo on mentioning this fact has made the whole climate change debate so far somewhat unreal. Stabilising [sic] population levels has always been essential ecologically, and this study shows it's economically sensible too," said Martin.

Karen Hardee, senior researcher with Population Action International (PAI), also hopes to bring SRHR (sexual reproductive and health rights) issues to the forefront in Copenhagen. In an interview on Friday she said that climate-change policies focus on technological solutions at the expense of social sectors and called for "more people-centered global and national adapation approaches that meet the full range of people's needs."

Not all environmentalists blame overpopulation for the supposed woes of Earth. Simon Butler's June 2009 article "Ten Reasons Why Population Control Is Not an Answer to Climate Change" published in Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal contradicts several points in the WHO and PAI reports. In fact, Butler claims population control hinders the green movement. He says, "Blaming too many people for driving climate change is like blaming too many trees for causing bushfires." He maintains that runaway population growth is a myth, explaining that the rate of growth has been gradually decreasing worldwide since the 1960s. He said that overpopulation is a centuries-old scapegoat for the world's problems. "In practice, there has never been a population-control scheme that has had acceptable environmental or humanitarian outcomes," he said, pointing out that China's one-child policy has not solved environmental problems in that country while forced sterilization and female infanticide run rampant.

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digby said:

digby Population growth not a problem? http://www.chrismartenson.com/ Click on the "crash course" in the upper left hand corner to become familiar with the concept of exponential growth and how it is currently affecting population growth, energy resource consumption and the growth of economic debt. This is a problem, no matter what you WANT to think...

September 21, 2009

Thomas Paine said:

The NWO is already starting to work on this problem. Have you noticed over your heads lately the Chemtrails being layed down every 3 - 4 days. Not the old contrails your used to. These fill up the whole sky. (Just when you thought you had enough conspiracies for one lifetime). (look up Chemtrails on youtube or web, or just look up in the sky more often). I'd sure like someone to educate me on this subject.

September 21, 2009

Flu-Bird said:

Eco-Nazis Many radical eco-freaks have always demanded that humans become totaly extict many after pehaps reading PAUL EHRLICHS fruadulent book THE POPULATION BOMB and one group WORLD WATCH has been one of those pushing for this and many in the UN want america to adopt chinas one child policy and in some cases radical eco-freaks have demanded abortions and euthinasia and say having kids should be a crime aganist the planet since many of them have subcribed to JAMES LOVELOCKS GAIA hypothsis

September 21, 2009

Kelli said:

... Population control scares me to death. No pun intended. Who gets to decide which part of the population is "controlled". The Rockerfellers, Bilderbergs, UN???? Obamacare?

September 22, 2009

SCHNORCHEL said:

Population growth of The John Birch Society needed There is too much concern with population growth and too much environmentalism. What is really needed is to increase the population growth of the John Birch Society. The benefits of that are legion, as it will solve the problems engendered by runaway socialism.

September 22, 2009

BobMcCune said:

Georgia Guidestones Have you ever looked up the Georgia Guidestones? The 1st item is: "Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature." Who designed and paid to build it is secret, however, I suspect the Illuminati had it built. No matter who's behind it- evil is behind them. We must learn who the enemy is. The John Birch Society helps me learn who the enemy is and how to effectivly fight back.

September 24, 2009

Thomas Paine said:

Guidestones Thanks Bob, great find. Definitely has Freemasonry all over it, and NWO. There is definitely some sick secret cult out there. President Kennedy tried to expose it. You can see his speach about secret societies on youtube.

September 24, 2009

Flu-Bird said:

eco-freaks Will PAUL EHRLICH and all the eco-wackos please report to the nearist disinagration booth you names have come up

September 25, 2009

John Berbatis said:

Humans will soon have to contend with self-anihilation. The Cause of human self-annihilation!! Global seismic activity will increase exponentially because of the extraordinary loss in the mass of the ice sheets and glaciers. This loss results in the Tectonic Plates ascending [iso-static rebound], and the kinetic energy created arises in the weakest points of the crust. These events will escalate to the point were the ice-sheets are dislodged enmasse from Western Antarctica, and so cause an imbalance of the axis rotation. "In a polar region there is a continual deposition of ice, which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth's rotation acts on these asymmetrically deposited masses [of ice], and produces centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to the rigid crust of the earth. The constantly increasing centrifugal momentum produced in this way will, when it has reached a certain point, produce a movement of the earth's crust over the rest of the earth's body, and this will displace the polar regions toward the equator." Albert Einstein from The Path of the Pole by Charles Hapgood. John Berbatis Perth, Australia

September 29, 2009 | url

Another Pugh said:

... John, You qoute Albert but don't know he said the ice did get so high on the poles, coupled with the wobble, end up making the earth slip on its pole to a new pole. Also, we will experience this again someday. That says to me we need to melt them. Also, what about during the Cretaceous period when there was one continent ,Pangea and no ice covered the earth or the times CO2 was high and so was the ice caps? Do you really know what your talking about if you leave out data of that nature? I think it is very hard to get it right when you ignore important data that CONTRADICTs Al Gore and his spin. No doubt something is happening and no doubt it is happening on all the planets in the solar system. Last time I checked we don't pollute Pluto but it is warming as are Mars, Jupiter etc. Something is happening all right and it is way bigger than your mind has wrapped around just yet.

September 30, 2009