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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.
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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."
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(Agencies)
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近日，澳大利亞一位醫學專家提議，有兩個以上孩子的家庭要終身繳納氣候變化稅，以消除其多排放的溫室氣體帶來的不良影響。
根據在《澳大利亞醫學》期刊上公布的征稅計劃，每多生一個孩子就得繳稅5000澳元（4400美元），以后每年還得繳稅800澳元。
珀斯市愛德華國王紀念醫院的巴里?沃爾特斯教授介紹說，相反，采取避孕和節育措施的人將有資格獲得“碳信用”獎勵。
他在提案中寫道：“‘超生’家庭都應繳納‘二氧化碳稅’，所征的稅將用于植樹造林，以消除新增人口所排放的二氧化碳帶來的危害。”
澳大利亞僅有2100萬人口，為了提高出生率，政府出臺了一項“嬰兒獎金”計劃。該計劃規定，每個新生嬰兒可獲得4000澳元的獎勵。而沃爾特斯則在一封倡議書中批評了政府的這一舉措。
他說，這一計劃加劇了溫室氣體的排放和全球變暖。他還建議，應按照“污染者付費”的原則，將這一津貼改為“嬰兒稅”。
新南威爾士健康促進與研究中心的主任、蓋里?艾格教授對這一觀點表示同意。
他說：“人口仍是各種環境問題的關鍵因素。作為第二輪生物進化的一部分，有關人口控制的辯論應重新展開。”
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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