Government should encourage us to have less children

Britain's rapidly rising birth rate is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, warns a leading thinktank. The Optimum Population Trust believes that the British government should follow the lead of China or Iran in encouraging parents to restrict themselves to two children or less.

'Each new UK birth, through the inevitable resource consumption and pollution that UK affluence generates, is responsible for about 160 times as much climate-related environmental damage as a new birth in Ethiopia, or 35 times as much as a new birth in Bangladesh,' says the report. 'A voluntary stop-at-two guideline should be adopted for couples in the UK who want to adopt greener lifestyles. It would aim to set an example.'

The report was commissioned when statistics showed that Britain's fertility rate had reached its highest level for 30 years. In particular, the report's author is worried about our teenage pregnancy rate which is the highest in Europe.

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