Among those invited to the Vatican workshop were leading population control advocates, including Paul Ehrlich.

Ehrlich is well known for his forced abortion and mass sterilization beliefs.

His presentation was entitled "Why We Are in the Sixth Extinction and What It Means to Humanity".

"Thousands called on Pope Francis to ensure that a leading proponent of abortion and sterilization was not given a platform in the Vatican, but Ehrlich's speech has taken place nonetheless," said Maria Madise of Voice of the Family. "

Workshop organiser Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo said the Academy's aim for the workshop was to learn from world-renowned scientists.

In its pre-conference blurb the Academy said it was looking for "appropriate social conditions" to help prevent further biological extinction".

It warned that extinction of life-supporting species "will probably be the sin for which our descendants will be least likely to forgive us."

The Vatican says it will use the workshop learnings to comment effectively on political, social or economic policies.

Source

• National Catholic Register
• LifeSite News
• Image: Stanford News

Paul Ehrlich said Pope Francis is simply wrong in trying to fight climate change without also addressing the strain on global resources from population rise.

"That's raving nonsense," the scientist said.

Ehrlich wrote on the subject in the journal Nature Climate Change.

His was a rare dissent in a special feature of commentary from scientists about Francis's encyclical Laudato Si'.

He told The Guardian that the Pope is right on some things, "but he is just dead wrong on that".

"It is crystal clear. No one concerned with the state of the planet and the state of the global economy can avoid dealing with population.

"It is the elephant in the room," he said.

In Laudato Si', the idea of population growth as a strain on global resources is explicitly rejected.

"Demographic growth is fully compatible with an integral and shared development," the Pope wrote.

"To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues."

Ehrlich, in his Nature Climate Change commentary, said Francis had fallen for the usual clerical "obsession" with contraception and abortion.

This is when he could have instead broken new ground on the Catholic Church's approaches to women's reproductive rights and family planning.

Ehrlich became a household name in the US nearly 50 years ago for warning of a global catastrophe because of population growth - a scenario he later conceded did not entirely materialise.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: Stanford News

Despite the failure of his forecast, Ehrlich remains undaunted. "The end is still nigh," he says according to the Times, and population control ought to be implemented, "preferably through voluntary methods."

But, Ehrlich continues, allowing women to choose to have as many children as they desire is like allowing everyone to "throw as much of their garbage into their neighbor's backyard as they want."

In our view, Ehrlich fundamentally misunderstands the value of human life, the actual population threat facing the earth, and what can be done to stop it.

Scrooge, Malthus, and Ehrlich

In the first chapter of Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol, we are introduced to the unforgettable Ebenezer Scrooge, a dismal miser who loathes Christmas. In one of a series of interactions proving his bitterness, Scrooge is solicited for a charitable donation:

"A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?'"

"Nothing!'" Scrooge replied.

"You wish to be anonymous?'"

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." Continue reading

Sources

• The Witherspoon Institute
• Image: Zimbio