An Inconvenient Baby

What would Al Gore say about this?

Some people believe with a religious zeal that babies are bad for the environment.

Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy.

But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.

Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.

..."Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35.

"Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."

While most parents view their children as the ultimate miracle of nature, Toni seems to see them as a sinister threat to the future.

This woman is nuts.

She should have been in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. (She wasn't, right? I haven't seen it.)

...[W]hile other young women dream of marriage and babies, Toni was convinced it was her duty not to have a child.

She claims she was far from alone.

"Through my job I made many friends who, like me, were more interested in campaigning, trying to change society and save the planet rather than having families of our own.

"We used to say that if ever we did want children, we'd adopt, as there are so many children in need of a loving family.

"At least then, we'd be doing something positive for the world, rather than something negative."

Toni was happy, at last, with fellow environmentalists who shared her philosophy. But when she was 25, disaster struck.

"I discovered that despite taking the Pill, I'd accidentally fallen pregnant by my boyfriend.

"I was horrified. I knew straight away there was no option of having the baby."

"I went to my doctor about having a termination, and asked if I could be sterilised at the same time.

"This time it was a male doctor. I remember saying to him: 'I want to make sure this never happens again.'

"He said: 'You may not want a child, but one day you may meet a man who does'. He refused to consider it.

"I didn't like having a termination, but it would have been immoral to give birth to a child that I felt strongly would only be a burden to the world.

"I've never felt a twinge of guilt about what I did, and have honestly never wondered what might have been.

This is weird. Vernelli desperately wanted to be sterilized, yet she was probably sloppy about taking the Pill. If the thought of a pregnancy was so horrifying to her, you'd think that she would have been more careful.

I don't get how somehow who supposedly reveres the planet and the wonders of nature would destroy a living thing, with absolutely no pangs of guilt.

She claims she never wondered about the child she aborted.

That sounds pretty selfish to me.

I doubt that she'd kill a polar bear. If she did, she'd probably be haunted by what might have been.

Here is where Vernelli really comes off as a selfish wacko rather than a selfless crusader to save the world:

"I've never doubted that I made the right decision. Ed and I married in September 2002, and have a much nicer lifestyle as a result of not having children.

"We love walking and hiking, and we often go away for weekends.

"Every year, we also take a nice holiday - we've just come back from South Africa.

"We feel we can have one long-haul flight a year, as we are vegan and childless, thereby greatly reducing our carbon footprint and combating over-population.

What a hypocrite!

This devoted environmentalist boards a carbon emission-spewing plane and goes on "a nice holiday." I don't care if she's a vegan and childless. This carbon offset stuff is a load of crap. It's the scam of this young century.

If you care about the planet, then you care about it all the time. Everything you do counts. You don't fly to Africa and feel OK about it because you don't have a baby or don't eat cheeseburgers.

Vernelli goes on:

"My only frustration is that other people are unable to accept my decision.

"When I tell people why I don't want children, they look at me as if I was planning to commit murder.

What?

She aborted her child. She did commit murder. She was pregnant. She was carrying a genetically complete human being and she destroyed it.

I don't think a woman should feel pressured into having a family. Every woman doesn't have to be a mother.

BUT--

It's idiotic to suggest that having a child is a "sinister threat to the future."

Does Vernelli believe that the only way to "save" the planet is to ensure that human beings die out?

No more babies?

All this raises an interesting question:

If the planet is "saved" but there's no one around to see it, has it been "saved"?