Academies' anti-human Rio statement shows hijacking of science

A statement by world science academies in favour of population control shows how public bodies are being hijacked increasingly by ideology,
The statement on population and consumption by the Inter Academies Panel (IAP), prior to this week's Rio+20 conference:

• claims falsely that "Rapid population growth can be an obstacle to improving standards of living in poor countries"
• looks forward to a world "where population growth comes to a halt"
• encourages the "development strategies that help to reduce population growth"
• calls for universal "access to comprehensive reproductive health and family planning programmes" - euphemisms for abortion on demand and population control
• warns sinisterly that "The longer the delay, the more radical and difficult measures will be needed."

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, told the media this afternoon:

"The IAP's statement is based on the Royal Society's report in April called 'People and the Planet'. The working group for that report featured population control enthusiasts such as Malcom Potts the veteran abortion campaigner, as well as Jonathon Porritt and Professor Roger Short who have both praised China's brutal one-child policy.

What we are witnessing is a rising trend of organisations being hijacked by radical agendas which have nothing to do with those organisations' remits. For example, the BBC has an agreement with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the world's largest abortion provider, to spread pro-abortion propaganda among the world's youth. Multi-national companies such as Google and Starbucks now campaign for same-sex marriage. We should not be so naive as to believe that science academies are immune from such ideological bias.

The fact that the IAP's statement is based on the long-discredited ideas of Malthus suggests that the ideology of abortion rights has blinded the signatories to scientific reality. History shows that health and wealth improves as population rises, and declines when fertility rates fall below replacement level. In any case, the rate of world population growth peaked in 1970, and fertility in most countries has been dropping rapidly. Concerns about sustainability, pollution, etc will not be addressed if fewer potential future scientists, engineers, etc are born."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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