Parents who have more than two children should be charged a lifelong climate change tax to offset the effect of their extra greenhouse gas emissions, an Australian medical expert has proposed.
 
Parents who have more than two children should be charged a lifelong climate change tax to offset the effect of their extra greenhouse gas emissions, an Australian medical expert has proposed.

They should pay 5,000 dollars (4,400 US) a head for each extra child and up to 800 dollars every year thereafter, according to the plan published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

In contrast, contraceptives and sterilization procedures would be eligible for carbon credits, suggested Professor Barry Walters at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth.

"Every family choosing to have more than a defined number of children should be charged a carbon tax that would fund the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon cost generated by a new human being," he wrote.

Walters made his proposal in a letter in which he criticized the government's payment of a 4,000 dollar "baby bonus" in a bid to boost the birth rate in this sparsely-populated country of 21 million people.

Paying parents extra for every baby fuelled more emissions and contributed to global warming, he said, adding that the bonus should be replaced with a "baby levy" in line with the "polluter pays" principle.

And Professor Garry Egger, director of the New South Wales Centre for Health Promotion and Research, agreed.

"Population remains crucial to all environmental considerations," he said. "The debate (around population control) needs to be reopened as part of a second ecological revolution."

 
近日，澳大利亚一位医学专家提议，有两个以上孩子的家庭要终身缴纳气候变化税，以消除其多排放的温室气体带来的不良影响。

根据在《澳大利亚医学》期刊上公布的征税计划，每多生一个孩子就得缴税5000澳元（4400美元），以后每年还得缴税800澳元。

珀斯市爱德华国王纪念医院的巴里•沃尔特斯教授介绍说，相反，采取避孕和节育措施的人将有资格获得“碳信用”奖励。

他在提案中写道：“‘超生’家庭都应缴纳‘二氧化碳税’，所征的税将用于植树造林，以消除新增人口所排放的二氧化碳带来的危害。”

澳大利亚仅有2100万人口，为了提高出生率，政府出台了一项“婴儿奖金”计划。该计划规定，每个新生婴儿可获得4000澳元的奖励。而沃尔特斯则在一封倡议书中批评了政府的这一举措。

他说，这一计划加剧了温室气体的排放和全球变暖。他还建议，应按照“污染者付费”的原则，将这一津贴改为“婴儿税”。

新南威尔士健康促进与研究中心的主任、盖里•艾格教授对这一观点表示同意。

他说：“人口仍是各种环境问题的关键因素。作为第二轮生物进化的一部分，有关人口控制的辩论应重新展开。”