Children DO cause climate change, but not the kind you think.

I read with interest Brian Lilley’s November 21 contribution to Mercator Net. He discussed how the high priests of the climate-change creed are officially targeting children (and specifically third world children) as causes of climate change.

The latest report from the United Nations Population Fund was released on Wednesday at news conferences in Ottawa and other key venues: …more babies will undermine attempts to stop climate change.

This nonsense from the UN is not new: we have heard for some time now that the most climatologically (ergo morally) responsible thing you can do is have fewer children or none at all. I have read countless columns, articles, and comments on blogs and websites blasting large families for increasing their “carbon footprint” and jeopardizing the future of the planet. (I get so annoyed, in fact, that I have often wanted to have my gas-guzzling, 15-passenger van stencilled with a nickname such as “Bigfoot,” just to rub a little salt into self-inflicted, angst-ridden eco-fascist wounds).

My husband I are the proud parents of seven beautiful children. This makes us an anomaly in post-modern western culture, where the birth rate has fallen below replacement level. What makes our family slightly more extraordinary is that they are all girls. I am rather proud of this fact, though technically, I’m not sure I had much to do with it. As a believer (in God, not global warming), I happen to think there was some sort of divine plan involved in the gender selection, but even if you belong to the Church of Darwin (or none at all), you are still invited to wonder at the fantastic odds of such a thing happening.

My girls are lovely, intelligent and talented (but they would possess inherent human dignity even if they were not). They are musically and artistically gifted: I cannot say at this point (the eldest being only twenty-one) whether there is a future composer, performer, filmmaker, or artist in the bunch, but you never know. They perform well academically: could there be a potential teacher, professor, research scientist, doctor amongst them? My daughters are also loving and protective toward one another (sibling squabbles are relatively few and far between) and compassionate towards the marginalized and downtrodden. They have practical skills: they know how to cook, clean, and change a flat tire. They don’t complain (any more than is entirely normal) about doing household chores: everyone pitches in according to age and ability.

They volunteer in the wider community where they have a reputation for being polite, respectful, and hard-working. I could be accused of bias for saying all of this, but I have heard it from so many people (most of whom are no blood relation) that I must conclude it is true. In short, my girls are (dare I say it?) contributing to society and making the world a better place. And we know how desperately this world needs to be made better. It has far less to do with recycling plastic soda bottles than with respecting human life and the dignity of the person. Less panic that “the sky is falling”; more joy, faith, hope and love—that is the sort of “climate change” I can believe in.

We hear it often: “Children are the future,” though it usually comes from TV ads for self-serving teachers’ unions (many of which are, ironically, stridently pro-abortion) and other relatively useless entities. However, it remains the truth, despite the UNFPA telling us the precise opposite: children will destroy the future. The only way to ensure a bright future (for the earth and humanity) is to give families respect and support, and to give our children the best rearing possible. That doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of stuff—certainly not crates of condoms. The basics will usually suffice: food, shelter, clean water, education, opportunity to succeed, and most crucial of all, unconditional love and acceptance.

As the mother of an all-female family, it is deeply painful to consider that in cultures where female infanticide and sex-selective abortion are practiced, most of my girls would not have been given a chance of life. True enough, had they never existed their “carbon footprints” would have been pre-emptively eliminated, but then so would every picture they have drawn, every joke they’ve told, every piano concerto they have played, every kind word and deed they have ever done, every bit of joy that they have brought into the lives of people they have known. To say nothing of the contributions they will make to the world as they get older.

My daughters are not unique: many children are just as beautiful, wonderful and talented. All children possess the seeds of potential to be and do great things for humanity. Yes, humanity, not just the environment. I believe in responsible stewardship of the earth, not fanatical earth-worship that demands human sacrifice. It is rather ironic that Eco-crusaders dream of a pristine, natural utopia for the earth—to what end? So that a decaying, corrupted civilization such as ours can die a tortuous death surrounded by fluffy bunnies and soft green grass?

I enjoyed this statement from Mr. Lilley’s concluding paragraph: “The UNFPA report promises solutions that don't work for a problem that doesn't exist.” Sounds so typical of almost everything the UN does. Disturbing, too, is the conclusion of the UNFPA’s report: children are the problem, but children of developing nations most of all. It befuddles me that Charles Dickens’s lesson from A Christmas Carol has still not penetrated the great minds-that-be in the Climate Change Cult. If there is such a thing as “excess” population, why do the harbingers of doom and gloom never imagine that they belong to that unfortunate pariah class? Does Al Gore ever regret that his parents did not abort him? Does he contemplate suicide on a daily basis as the most responsible thing he can do for the environment?

Now there is a quick and easy solution if I ever saw one: any adult who is a True Believer in the “Overpopulation causes Climate Change” prognostications should join a huge suicide pact, and nobly do his or her part for the cause. Maybe they could even assign a date: perhaps during Earth Hour (the hour of universal darkness) next March? Just a thought.

But please, leave our children alone. And, as those in the pro-abortion camp are so fond of saying: “Keep your laws off my body.”


Copyright 2009 Mariette Ulrich