In Which I Find Myself Agreeing With Leo Hickman

Wonders never cease…

Hickman comments on  the latest from the optimum population trust and I agree with him (although probably not for the same reasons).

“Rich nations to offset emissions with birth control.” At first sight, I thought it was a satirical headline from the Onion. Good one, I thought: they’re imagining carbon offsetting at its most ludicrous extreme.

But then I read further: “The scheme, called PopOffsets, understands the connection [between population increase and climate change],” says the Optimum Population Trust‘s 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.”

I believe “WTF” is the acronym now favoured when faced with such statements.

Well quite. The plan apparently is that we assuage our guilt by buying condoms for the third world – titter ye not.

The Optimum Population Trust (OPT), which is supported by environmental grandees such as Sir David Attenborough and James Lovelock, is arguing that, instead of planting tress and the like, it makes much better sense for people in developed nations to offset their emissions by paying for condoms to be handed out in developing nations where birth rates are much higher. To facilitate this, a website has now been set up where you can calculate your emissions for, say, your “summer holiday 2009” and then make a donation which helps pay for contraceptives to be distributed in countries such as India and Kenya.

Words fail me. “Not on your nelly” springs to mind but doesn’t do justice, somehow. But to have me agreeing with über warmist Hickman is quite an achievement.