Now billboards are appearing in many North American cities, from Vancouver to Minneapolis, at bus stops as well as along highways. A smiling child watches the commuters. And below, the announcement says: “The greatest loving gift you can give to your first child is not having another one”. It is part of a series of advertisements (another says that “conservation begins at conception”) financed by the World Population Balance, an ecological organization in the United States. Dave Gardner, the director, says he supports an “ethical, humanitarian and voluntary” solution to overpopulation. And it is propaganda that works.
A Morning Consult poll for the New York Times shows that one-third of men and women between the ages of 20 and 45 cite climate change as a factor in their decision to have children or not. The Morning Consult data also finds that 11 percent of childless adults say climate change is the “main reason” they didn't want it.
“Congestion begins at conception” announces another manifesto for an eco-sustainable one-child. Traffic and fire images are used. The message is clear: have children and you will increase the queues on the streets and the risk of natural disasters. The “child free” section, on the other hand, is seductive: young couples without children, hugging, kissing, enjoying outings.
The proponents say they are in favor of a “drastic and voluntary reduction in births”. And if that doesn't work, biologist Ehrlich always has the next step ready. Taxing baby products (“cribs, diapers, games, baby food”), flooding schools with sex education, making access to abortion even easier and Chinese-style sterilization campaigns with implants, mandatory there for Ughur women, that prevent births.
Current environmentalism, which is based on an anti-Biblical and post-humanist vision, is pure civilizational suicide. Birth rates are already falling all over the West, Canada, Europe, America. The West is not overpopulated at all. But environmentalists are fine with that. They are pro mass immigration from Africa, where birth rates are surging and which is coming to Europe.
They don’t dream of an empty planet, but of a post-Western one. Where the Statue of Liberty is submerged on the beach.
Giulio Meotti is, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author, in English, of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books, in addition to books in Italian. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone, Frontpage and Commentary.