Contact: Don Feder, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com
MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 4 /Standard Newswire/ -- "Demographic Winter" producer Barry McLerran said the demand of Britain's chief environmental advisor to limit the number of children to two per family was "based on faulty logic of the 1960s population-control movement."
John Porritt, who chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission, calls families with more than two children "irresponsible." Porritt wants the British government to aggressively fund abortion and contraception to limit family size.
McLerran notes that the U.K. birth rate is 1.87 children per woman - well below the replacement level of 2.11, and down from 2.93 in 1964.
"Even without Porritt's proposed aggressive government intervention to promote population control, absent mass immigration, sometime in this century, Britain will begin losing people," McLerran noted.
"Who will pay the pensions of retirees or support Britain's costly National Health Service? How will the U.K. remain competitive in the global economy with a rapidly aging population?" McLerran asked.
The producer of "Demographic Winter" explained, "There has never been an example of rising living standards coupled with declining birth rates. But, when living standards fall, so does concern for the environment."
"Like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she suggested that funding contraception should be part of the economic stimulus package, Porritt views people as a problem - degrading the environment through energy consumption. Instead, they are an irreplaceable asset," McLerran noted. "As the working-age population - and the tax base - declines, where will Britain find the funding for environmental initiatives?"
"If Global Warming is a problem, it's people who will find a solution. But population decline means an ever-shrinking pool of innovative thinkers," McLerran observed.
"Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family" is the first documentary on the worldwide decline in birthrates - more than 50% in the past 30 years. To view a 4-minute trailer, go to www.demographicwinter.com. To schedule an interview with a spokesman for the film, contact Don Feder at 508-405-1337 or dfeder@rcn.com.