Posted on 08/30/2007 6:51:47 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
VIENNA (Reuters) - China says its one-child policy has helped the fight against global warming by avoiding 300 million births, the equivalent of the population of the United States.
But delegates at U.N. climate change talks in Vienna said on Thursday birth control is unlikely to find favor as a major policy tool, partly because of opposition by the Catholic Church and some developing nations trying to increase their population.
Some scientists say that birth control measures far less draconian than China's are wrongly overlooked in the fight against climate change, when the world population is projected to soar to about 9 billion by 2050 from 6.6 billion now.
"Population is clearly an important factor," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, at U.N. talks trying to plan a new deal to combat climate change after 2012.
China, which rejects criticism that it is doing too little to confront climate change, says that its population is now 1.6 billion against 1.3 billion if it had not imposed tough birth control measures in the late 1970s.
The number of births avoided equals the entire population of the United States. Beijing says that fewer people means less demand for energy and lower emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.
"This is only an illustration of the actions we have taken," said Su Wei, a senior Foreign Ministry official heading China's delegation to the 158-nation talks from Aug 27-31.
He told Reuters that Beijing was not arguing that its policy was a model for others to follow in a global drive to avert ever more chaotic weather patterns, droughts, floods, erosion and rising ocean levels.
But avoiding 300 million births "means we averted 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005" based on average world per capita emissions of 4.2 tonnes, he said.
GERMANY
A country emitting 1.3 billion tonnes a year would rank just ahead of Germany on a global list of emitters behind only the United States, China, Russia, India and Japan.
Beijing introduced its one-child policy in the late 1970s. The rules vary across the country but usually limit families to one or, at most two, children.
"Population has not been taken seriously enough in the climate debate," said Chris Rapley, incoming head of the Science Museum in London.
He favors a greater drive for education about family planning to avoid unwanted births and slow population growth.
But tougher birth control runs into opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, and from some developing nations which favor rising birth rates and have per capita emissions a fraction of those in rich nations.
Harlan Watson, the chief U.S. negotiator, said that high immigration to the United States makes it harder to slow its rising emissions.
"It's simple arithmetic," he said. "If you look at mid-century, Europe will be at 1990 levels of population while ours will be nearing 60 percent above 1990 levels. So population does matter," he said.
It follows then that genocide also reduces global warming by reducing the population — so long as ovens aren’t used.
Step to the head d’ohf the class. This planet would be okay for people if there weren’t any of those pesky people around.
Students we know just returned from China several days ago. They said that the smog was so bad in Beijing that they could hardly breathe. Our Chinese friends say it gets worse everytime they visit, which is at least once a year.
If they are so concerned about the climate, how about the junk going into the air from their unregulated factories?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Well - I am feeling holier than thou and I want to help. I want China to adopt a no child policy.
Yeah, the left will LOVE this tactic.
Just reading how the left enabled, propped up, and propagandized for the Communist Soviet Union. Yes, McCarthy was right.
A New York Times reporter, PURPOSEFULLY AND KNOWINGLY covered up the genocide of (in HIS estimate) 7-10 million killed by forced famine in the Ukraine.
Things don’t change much with the left, now, do they?
Now 1.6 billion vs would be 1.3 billion without their one-child policy.
Wanted: Reuters editor who can actually read. Photoshop skills helpful.
We slaughter infants by the hundreds of millions because we care about the environment!
Reuters actually uses editors?
I wish Islam would adopt this theory.
Mr. Camel ping
It seems that we can now quantify the worth of the world average human being at 4.2 tonnes of CO2 per year (World average cited by the PRC). By preventing 300 million births since 1970 China claims to have saved the environment 1.3 Billion tonnes of CO2 in 2005.
During approx. the same period the USA has had some 50 million abortions and since the average CO2 per capita production of CO2 among Americans is 19.8 tonnes of CO2 vs. China’s actual average of 3.2 tonnes the USA has saved 990 million Tonnes of CO2 vs China actually saving only 960 million tonnes of CO2 in 2005.
Taking into account the various and sundry people killed by the USA in wars since 1970 I would say that the US is well ahead of China in curbing greenhouse gasses.
We can do better China has a population of about 1.3 billion.....
From the link just now: “China, which rejects criticism that it is doing too little to confront climate change, says that its population is now 1.3 billion against 1.6 billion if it had not imposed tough birth control measures in the late 1970s.”
From this post as you have it: “China, which rejects criticism that it is doing too little to confront climate change, says that its population is now 1.6 billion against 1.3 billion if it had not imposed tough birth control measures in the late 1970s.”
Did it update to correct in the last 15 minutes?
Karl in Ohio pointed out the mistake in post 10. The reuters page now says “CORRECTED” at the top.
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