Copenhagen summit anti-population 'extremists’ are unscientific, researcher cautions

Dec 18, 2009 / 04:49 am

With the close of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, demographics expert Steven W. Mosher has warned that blaming overpopulation for global warming is “unscientific” and “dangerous.”

“The people of China have paid dearly for their leader's obsession with driving down the birthrate, and now we hear anti-population extremists at Copenhagen advocating a China-like one-child policy for the entire world,” Mosher said in a Thursday press release.

Mosher, president of the Virginia-based Population Research Institute (PRI), is an expert on China’s one-child policy. He has witnessed forced abortions and forced sterilizations performed on pregnant women in China.

“Population extremists speak of a world in danger from exploding population. But one wonders what ‘world they are talking about.”

He said that at present “tremendous strides” have been made to produce more food from less land and to set aside land for nature preserves. Mosher also cited population statistics which show birth rates plummeting and population growth plateauing.

“The demographic collapse of the developed world is the real inconvenient truth,” Mosher commented, predicting that much of the developing world will follow the same path. 

“We would be better served holding summits on these matters if we want to stave off economic and societal collapse. Climate change can wait. Providing for the future by providing the next generation cannot. Weather fluctuations or not, we should have more children, not fewer.”