Thanks to professor Barry Walters, there's new outrage in the Outback. In this month's Medical Journal of Australia, Walters argues that having babies is bad for the planet. Though his argument's nothing new, Walters' solution certainly is. To offset the carbon emissions from Australia's kids, Walters says that parents should have to pay a $4,000 tax for each child they have. In his article, he says the "baby levy" could be used to plant trees that would absorb the extra CO2. Obviously, there are plenty of problems with Walters' plans--not the least of which is a lack of consensus on whether global warming actually exists. Just last week, scientists from the Universities of Rochester, Alabama, and Virginia released a report that said the earth isn't in a state of "planetary emergency." And if it were, researchers agreed the sun--not humans--would be to blame. The truth is, Walters' idea completely underestimates the importance of human capital, which is by far the earth's most valuable resource. Besides, if Australians stop having children, who will be left to plant all those trees? Like many, Walters is using global warming as an excuse to push population control. But the only thing he should really be controlling is his radical rhetoric.
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