Former UK Finance Chief Hails Population Reduction As Solution to 'Climate Change'

It’s amazing how woke leftists will say things which would be decried as total conspiracy theories if we accused the Left of believing them without quotes. For instance, this headline from Breitbart: “Reduce Population to Save the Planet, Says Former UK Finance Chief.”

This is not the first time “climate change” crazies have called for population reduction. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were given an award earlier this year by Population Matters (an org which has admired China’s murderous, oppressive population control policy) for committing to having only two children. No word on whether Harry and Meghan will stop flying around in private jets to save the environment, however.

Now Lord Adair Turner is hailing the dying of the West (and non-Marxist East) with joy—apparently ignoring the fact that non-woke peoples such as individuals from Muslim nations have no intention of killing themselves off to help the climate. Iran is not about to commit to contraception to follow the no-doubt inspiring example of the UK and Japan. Turner also seems to forget that “climate change” is largely based on suppositions and models which have been proved astoundingly inaccurate over time, leading to the question of whether we really are facing a climate crisis at all (not to mention that China, the world’s biggest polluter, is not going to change its ways).

“In a report from Population Matters entitled Smaller Families and Ageing Populations, Lord Adair Turner, the chairman of the UK Energy Transitions Commission and former head of the FSA, argued that declining native populations will enhance prosperity.

‘The biggest reason to welcome this demographic shift is that it results from the free choice of empowered people, and in particular women,’ Lord Adair wrote.”

To paraphrase Elizabeth Bennett, I thank you for my share of the favor, but I do not particularly like your way of being empowered. Most women naturally want to be mothers. Many women who sacrifice having a family to having a career express great regret later in life. Aside from that (and I myself am pursuing a career in journalism, so obviously I don’t object to women having jobs), telling women they can only be empowered by refusing to have children is unnatural and tyrannical. Women are not automatically more free because they can spend their lives sitting in an office without having children to come home to. There is a certain richness and love and fulfillment that may be lacking without children, and that is part of empowerment, too.

“‘But ceasing endless population growth will also reduce humanity’s future press on the natural environment, ease the challenge of adequate housing provision, and make it easier to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while supporting prosperity growth in developing countries.’

The report said that Britain could cut carbon emissions by approximately 38 million tonnes by 2035 if it experiences a similar decline in population to Japan, which is expected to see a drop of 9.6 per cent in population from 125m to 113.1m people by 2035.

In contrast, the United Kingdom is expected to see an increase in the population of 5.2 per cent over the same time period to 71.1 million people, driven in large part by mass migration.

Aside from the supposed benefits of falls in carbon emissions, a drop in population would also cut the need for the construction of 4 million new homes in Britain, saving some 435,000 acres of land from developers.

The green movement has long hailed population control as a means of saving the world from the so-called climate crisis. In a notable example, the founder of CNN, Ted Turner, called for a Chinese-style one-child policy in order to save the planet from climate change in 2010.

Turner — himself a father of five — also suggested that “fertility rights” could be sold in order to incentivise [sic] poor people not to have children by profiting from the sale of their child credit to wealthier people.”

Umm. . .what? Talk about elitism at its worst. CNN founder tells poor people they shouldn’t have kids, only rich people should. Now that is “privilege” at its most revolting. That, however, was more than a decade ago. The US and Europe have not been enveloped by the oceans. Rich leftists continue to buy beachside property and fly in private jets. Am I missing something here?

“The report acknowledged that a declining and ageing population would result in workforce shortages, but pointed to the use of automation and migration as possible solutions to the problem as well as increasing retirement ages. . .While the report did highlight some of the negative ramifications of migration, it failed to note that the vast majority of population growth in Britain in recent years has come as a result of mass migration policies.”

Basically, the report does seem to have seen migration as a workforce solution. In which case, the population isn’t going down, it’s just that fewer British people are being born. Not sure how that supposedly solves the alleged “climate crisis.”

“A report from the Migration Watch UK think tank estimated that ‘about 90 per cent of population growth between 2017 and 2019 was linked to the impact of arrivals from abroad and their subsequent UK-born children’.”

Again, how is this population reduction solving the climate crisis in light of migration? Do white Europeans somehow automatically pollute more than non-Europeans? As usual, Turner seems to be basing his “climate change” solutions on a woke fantasy world and not on reality. Many nations now are literally committing suicide in terms of population growth. We are not increasing, we are decreasing. The climate will not be better off if Iran and China are left to rule the world.