Stop at two children to save planet?

For interest I enclose below an article in SNJ tomorrow - it is apparently the number three most read story on the SNJ website today after post office closures and a donkey to help Chalford residents!

It sadly has some misquotes and emphasis in the bits attributed to me - indeed I noted that Chinas' policy also had serious bad consequences - mind it is hard to get across an issue in a short article - to me population is only one amongst dozens of other areas we need to be considering when tackling climate change - sadly this article makes it look a little like it is one of the key answers...Do leave a comment about what you think....

Stop at two children to help save the planet says councillor
By David Wiles

A PROMINENT district councillor and environmental campaigner is calling for couples to limit themselves to having no more than two children to help save the planet. Cllr Philip Booth (Green, Over Stroud) says a 'stop at two' policy would help preserve the world's natural resources.

"If we're talking about climate change, we've got to look at how we're consuming resources," he said. "The problem is the more people we have on the planet the more we're consuming. If a family has got four children, they're often consuming more than other families."

The 47-year-old, who has no children of his own but has two grown-up step children, said the idea should be encouraged as one of several measures to reduce consumption, including eating less meat. He said China's 'one child' law had had some success, reducing population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by 300 million over its first 20 years. But he stressed that a 'stop at two' initiative would have to be optional.

"It would be an individual choice," he said. "I would like to see it implemented through family planning. We have some of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the continent. People are probably not choosing to have children."

Government projections show the UK population will rise from 60 million to 71.1 million by 2031 and reach 78.6 million by 2056.

"We should be looking to make people aware that population is still really an issue", he said. "I think there would be more support for it if people were aware of some of the issues."

He said the 'stop at two' initiative, which is not Green Party policy, was popular in the 1970s and had again come to the fore in the last five to six years.

"There are a number of people in the green movement who see it as a complete side issue," he said. "But I think we've got to do everything we can to stop climate change."

*Cllr Booth raised the 'stop at two' issue in a letter to the SNJ (See below).

See Green party policy on Population here:
http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/mfss/mfsspp.html

See Optimum Population Trust:
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/

Letter in SNJ:

Alistair Mainwaring suggests "old earth has been subject to weather patterns of hot and cold for 4,500 million years" (SNJ letters 9/01/08). This is true, but if trends continue as expected, the projected changes will be catastrophically greater than that already experienced. The idea that climate change is not, at least partly driven by man-made activities, is now only held by cranks or perhaps those with a financial interest in denying reality. The needed level of reduction in greenhouse gases is still disputed, but few scientists call for less than a 60% reduction and all the latest indications from the Tyndall Centre and others are that at least 90% is needed. Far from the Green party being unrealistic as Alistair Mainwaring suggests, we seem to be the only ones that appear to be listening to the scientists and developing the necessary policies. Although recent research by the Institute for Public Policy Research, RSPB and WWF calls for an 80% reduction in emissions and shows such a cut is cost-effective without damaging the economy. However Alistair Mainwaring's call for lower world population to help tackle emissions is spot-on. Last year the Green party had a Coffee House discussion in Stroud on this issue as a perpetually expanding economy, with perpetual population growth is not desirable or possible. It is surely time for encouraging a "Stop at Two" children policy and for full access to family planning worldwide which would also be good for women's health and rights? Cllr. Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party. Ruscombe, Stroud, Glos.