Herald Sun<\/a> reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.\nWalters is a clinical associate professor of obstetric medicine at the department of women\u2019s and infants\u2019 health at the University of Western Australia and the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth. In an article to be published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Walter\u2019s has been noted to say:<\/p>\n
Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing, but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society\u2026Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and thereby rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a baby levy in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the polluter pays principle<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to Walters\u2019 scheme, families with more than 2 children should be penalised with an initial $5000 levy for every extra child, followed by an annual carbon tax of $800. Such a levy, he said, would pay for the planting of trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over the child\u2019s lifespan. To supplement the financial penalties, Walters recommended an auxilliary arsenal of \u201cgreenhouse friendly services\u201d, which include contraceptives and sterilisation procedures to earn carbon credits. Finally, Walters has commended the population programs of China and India to the Australian context<\/p>\n
An emotive response that can be generated by such economic and environtmental fundamentalism would be inevitable. But what should be pointed out that such a radical proposal is symptomatic of the fear of death. According to Catherine Pickstock, the accumulation of security via the consumption that Walters is so critical of is driven by this very fear. Such acts of \u201cstockpiling\u201d, in Pickstock\u2019s parlance, is undertaken in defiance of death. What this engenders, according to Elizabeth Strakosch, is intergenerational warfare, where the present wages war against the future. Paradoxically, however, what this does is feed back on itself to undermine the present. This proposal, which targets those that are not responsible for the problem (namely the pollution caused by excessive consumption), and punishes those least likely to contribute to the problem (namely the parents who need the resources for the upkeep of their children) is symptomatic of such a mode of thinking.<\/p>\n
The corrective, according to Pickstock, is not a curb on \u201cstockpiling\u201d, but a turning away from its necro-centric logic. This is where the spiritual dimensions of the problem and solution become apparent, for to counter the necro-centrism of consumerism is must go beyond the formulation of political community that includes merely the living, but the dead and soon to be born. These need to be included in what Pickstock calls a common narrative, where death is but a stage of life and not its end. Needless to say, the imminantist logic of Modern life cannot allow for such a conception of community or such a narrative (or any narrative for that matter). Only worship embodied in the practices of Liturgy can embody such radical political horizons, and only a liturgical perspective can provide the counter to such the imminant fundamentalism espoused by the likes of Walters.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax. Walters is a clinical associate professor of obstetric medicine at the department of women\u2019s and infants\u2019 health at the University of Western Australia and the King Edward Memorial Hospital in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2806,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,43,50,53,61,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-liturgy","category-news","category-politics","category-radical-orthodoxy","category-secular"],"yoast_head":"\n
Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.Walters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.Walters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Divine Wedgie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-11T11:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Tan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheDivineWedgie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Tan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/\",\"name\":\"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-11T11:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-12-11T11:13:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#\/schema\/person\/d9b1e43bd846a085328d3927d33c3139\"},\"description\":\"A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.Walters\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/\",\"name\":\"The Divine Wedgie\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#\/schema\/person\/d9b1e43bd846a085328d3927d33c3139\",\"name\":\"Matthew Tan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3de62ceb0cf4f844536b7a1685dc122?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3de62ceb0cf4f844536b7a1685dc122?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Tan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@TheDivineWedgie\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/author\/mtan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy","description":"A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.Walters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy","og_description":"A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.Walters","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/","og_site_name":"The Divine Wedgie","article_published_time":"2007-12-11T11:13:00+00:00","author":"Matthew Tan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@TheDivineWedgie","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Tan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/","name":"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-12-11T11:13:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-11T11:13:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#\/schema\/person\/d9b1e43bd846a085328d3927d33c3139"},"description":"A 10th December edition of the Herald Sun reported on a proposal by Perth Associate Professor Barry Walters to tackle climate change: A baby tax.Walters","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/2007\/12\/11\/proposal-for-australian-2-child-policy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Proposal for Australian 2 Child Policy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/","name":"The Divine Wedgie","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#\/schema\/person\/d9b1e43bd846a085328d3927d33c3139","name":"Matthew Tan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3de62ceb0cf4f844536b7a1685dc122?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3de62ceb0cf4f844536b7a1685dc122?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Matthew Tan"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@TheDivineWedgie"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/author\/mtan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divinewedgie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}