An environmental group wrote an open letter to Britain’s royal family last week demanding that they stop having kids.
During a recent visit to Poland by Britain's Prince William and his wife, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the mother of two joked about having more children.
Presented with the gift of a baby’s toy during the visit, the duchess said to her husband, "We will just have to have more babies," according to the Telegraph.
An environmental group responded to her comment and urged the couple not to have more children.
In an open letter to William and Kate, the San Francisco-based organization Having Kids — which promotes smaller families as the solution to climate change — wrote, “We read with interest your statements about having more children.”
“We wanted to offer a few thoughts for your consideration,” the group continued. “As you know and appreciate, the example the British Royal Family sets is extremely influential. Many studies also show that public figures serve as effective role models when it comes to family planning. Your discussion of having a larger family raises compelling issues of sustainability and equity.”
The group said that “large families are not sustainable” and urged William and Kate to consider the impact of climate change to the United Kingdom.
In a statement accompanying the letter, Anne Green, executive director of Having Kids, said, “William and Kate have a tremendous opportunity to model their choice of a smaller family. In doing so, they would set a powerful example of mitigating climate change and its impacts, including impacts on the United Kingdom like severe flooding, deadlier heatwaves, increase in diseases, and wildlife extinctions.”
In a subsequent blog post, the group dismissed its critics as racists who want “white and wealthy couples” to have more children and as bloggers who are “creepily obsessed with celebrity babies.”
“Within our current family planning models, there is no medium in which to have this discussion,” the group wrote, adding, “That is why we wrote to Prince William and Kate. Their leadership could be an effective way to build a better future by breaking the taboo and setting a new and crucial trend of public family planning.”
The Washington Times reported that the group has previously taken issue with President Donald Trump for “role modeling a completely unsustainable family of five children that are greedily consuming resources our children will need in the future.”
(H/T: The Washington Times)
