Cornucopians unite!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, believes that having more than two children is “irresponsible” because it puts an unbearable burden on the environment.
In February he announced that he intends to persuade environmental pressure groups to put population at the forefront of their campaigning. How long, I wonder, before parents with three or more children are subjected to the "court of public opinion" or targetted, like smokers, as a threat to the rest of society.
Today Porritt was a guest on Andrew Neil's Daily Politics (BBC1). In the opposing corner ... Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas. "Cornucopians unite," said Porritt, disparagingly, in response to Claire's opening remarks.
Cornucopians? I had to look it up. According to Wikipedia, "A cornucopian is a futurist who believes that continued progress and provision of material items for mankind can be met by similarly continued advances in technology".
That's me, I shouted. I'm a cornucopian! You learn something new every day.
Full interview HERE.
Reader Comments (2)
Hmm are my comments going to get past moderation? The birth rate in the UK is 1.8, replenishment rate is between 2.1 or 2.2, so are we a dying race? The average birth rate for Europe is 1.5. So in Europe we need to have more children not less.
However the 3rd world have far larger families which are proportional to the wealth they have. I was doing some research on Palestine/Israel and the Palestinians and the average family has 5.7 children. They use their birth rate as a weapon against the Israelis.
Right idea, wrong audience.
The cornucopians would want to relocate themselves to Africa and the Arab states and start pointing the finger to where the overpopulation problem lies, and not target the overburdened and downtrodden easy targets of the west who are not only paying through the nose for oversized families of the so called refugees and asylum seekers, but sending millions to these countries in overseas aid.
These cornucopians/quangos would want to get real before the people of the west throw in the spunge altogether and take to the streets and start joining their 'disadvantaged' overseas counterparts.