Plenty of radical environmentalists, earth-worshippers, and Green extremists seriously believe that mankind is the problem, and must be dealt with – ruthlessly. Consider the latest example. The billion founder of CNN, Ted Turner, has long been on record as bit of a green nutter here, and he is at it again. Consider these opening paragraphs from a recent report:

“Media mogul and population control advocate Ted Turner recently told citizen journalists he would like to reduce the world’s population by five billion people, asking parents to be a ‘one child family… for 100 years.’ Turner had to answer for his history of provocative statements, and made a few new ones, when members of the website wearechange caught up with him on camera late last month.

“One individual asked the CNN founder what his goal was for world population. ‘I think two billion is about right,’ Turner said as he walked briskly away. In October, the number of people in the world reached seven billion. Before disappearing around the corner Turner said he hoped to eliminate five billion people through the “one child family.’ The interviewer responded, ‘One child policy.’ Turner answered, ‘For 100 years.’”

The obvious question which arises here is this: will Turner lead the way in this and bump off 95 per cent of his own family? If not, why not? Why the blatant hypocrisy and double standards? If one of his daughters is pregnant with a second child, will he force her to abort him or her?

The article continues: “Turner, a dedicated globalist, donated $1 billion to the United Nations, much of which has been used for ‘projects dealing with women and population issues.’ The outspoken atheist told a gathering of Society of Environmental Journalists in 1998 his views were incompatible with Christian doctrine or the Biblical admonition to ‘be fruitful and multiply’.”  

But we know that these UN and US-lead population control programs have been disastrous. One simply has to study a detailed volume like Fatal Misconceptions by Columbia University historian Matthew Connelly. In graphic details he demonstrates how these programs have led to horrific abuses of human rights, and the implementation of eugenicist practices that have ruined millions of lives.

Or consider a new book, Merchants of Death: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Sceintists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism by Robert Zubrin. The entire volume is excellent, but it has several shocking chapters on the population control movement which are crucial.

In them he offers six reasons why the population control campaigns are so harmful. “First, they are top-down dictatorial.” These groups for example speak much of “choice” to Third World women when it comes to childbirth. But, a woman’s right to choose must include the option of having children. Says Zubrin, “rather than providing ‘choice’ to individuals, the purpose of the campaigns is to strip entire populations of their ability to reproduce”.

“Second, the programs are dishonest.” As an example, peasants in the Third World are often “told by government population control personnel that sterilization operations are reversible, when in fact they are not”.

“Third, the programs are coercive.” There are “incentives” which “are frequently employed in the provision or denial of food or cash aid to starving people or their children”. And “disincentives” include “personal harassment, dismissal from employment, destruction of homes, and denial of schooling, public housing, or medical assistance”.

“Fourth, the programs are medically irresponsible and negligent.” More often than not the programs use “defective, unproven, unsafe, experimental, or unapproved gear, including equipment whose use has been banned in the United States”.

That and untrained or poorly trained personnel mean that millions of people’s lives are being put at risk, especially in Africa, “where improper reuse of hypodermic needles without sterilization in population control clinics has contributed to the rapid spread of deadly infectious diseases, including AIDS”.

“Fifth, the programs are cruel, callous, and abusive of human dignity and human rights.” Forced abortions are typical, as is the sterilization of women without their knowledge or consent. All this “is tantamount to government-organized rape”.

“Sixth, the programs are racist.” Invariably these programs are being carried out on non-white Third World nations by primarily white Western nations. And even within nations, one group can be targeted by another group. For example, in India the upper-caste Hindus have used these programs to eliminate lower-caste Muslims and untouchables.

He goes on to offer detailed and gruesome case studies of all this. It makes for some pretty revolting reading.

These people really do not like human beings – at least whole groups of them living in faraway lands. And the really bizarre thing is that they engage in all these anti-human activities in the name of humanitarianism.

Bill Muehlenberg is a lecturer in ethics and philosophy at several Melbourne theological colleges and a PhD candidate at Deakin University.

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