NEWS RELEASE
Vancouver, BC, November 24 — A new ad on TransLink buses in Vancouver will offer a scientifically informed perspective, in response to an ad taken out by Canadian MP Garnett Genuis celebrating large family-size decisions. Genuis’ ad reads:
“How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”
The response ad reads:
“Dear Mr. Genuis: Creating a beautiful future for ALL children begins with accepting we can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet.”
The response ad is a continuation of the One Planet, One Child advertising campaign which debuted on Vancouver billboards and transit shelters in September. Genuis, an MP representing Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan in Alberta, took exception to the One Planet, One Child billboard campaign that celebrates small-family decisions. His criticism – in recent interviews, a blog post, and comments to the House of Commons – ignores the negative environmental consequences of a growing population.
The One Planet, One Child campaign encourages family-size decisions fully informed about the tenuous state of our planet, due to a perfect storm of overpopulation and overconsumption. It’s a project of World Population Balance. The non-profit’s executive director, Dave Gardner, explains:
“There was a time when overpopulation wasn’t significant in family-size decisions. But over the past hundred years we’ve doubled world population and then doubled it again. Nearly one tenth of all the humans who have ever lived are alive on the planet today. We’re now of a size that we’re crippling the Earth’s life-supporting ecosystems. We’ve boxed ourselves into a corner. We’re free to conceive as many children as we desire, but that decision will determine whether those children have a bleak or a beautiful future.”
In remarks to the House of Commons on October 8, Garnett Genius stated:
“Having a larger population of younger people entering the workforce helps to ensure that there are enough taxpayers supporting the needs of our seniors.”
In response, the team behind the One Planet, One Child ad campaign devoted an episode of The Overpopulation Podcast to educating political leaders about limits to growth, overpopulation, and the fallacy of pursuing population growth to balance government budgets. In that episode, the nonprofit’s Gardner remarks:
“Bringing a child into the world so that they can be your caretaker in old age, or to pay taxes to support you in old age – I don’t think that’s a loving act on an overpopulated planet…. If you do find a way to add more young people in order to fund social programs for the elderly, the people you add are going to be the elderly in a generation. And then that’s going to be an even bigger cohort who have social programs that need to be funded.”
Gardner claims:
“Genuis’ ad throws children under the bus. Denial of limits to growth, and the pursuit of growth at any cost – guarantee a bleak future for his children and all the world’s children.”
The project website lists nearly two dozen of the countless scientific reports documenting destruction of Earth’s critical life-supporting ecosystems at the hands of human overpopulation and overconsumption.
The group is, however, standing up for the parliamentarian’s right to run the ad campaign. Dr. Hedy Fry, who represents Vancouver Centre in Parliament, characterized Genuis’ ad as anti-choice and demanded they be removed. Dave Gardner has commented:
“While we don’t agree with the purpose of his ads, Mr. Genuis has a right to free speech, and we welcome the debate. This provides an opportunity to enlighten him and other elected officials as to how dangerous his perspective is. We invite all elected officials to reach out to us, or visit oneplanetonechild.org to educate themselves about overshoot and overpopulation.”
Photos
World Population Balance
Dave Gardner – Executive Director
+1-719-331-1856
email
Related Links
One Planet, One Child billboard campaign
Media Resources (includes photos of billboard and transit ads)
Overpopulation 101 for Politicians – episode of The Overpopulation Podcast
