“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within...”
Romans 12:2

The Irony of Professor Roger Short

Hilary Butler - Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Professor Roger Short was Janet McIntyre’s premier “expert” for her “wonder drug” programme. It would seem that 80 year old veterinarian, Professor Roger Short, has a major bee in his bonnet, which filtered out in his enthusiastic endorsement of the pill to solve the world’s global warming problem... which is... far too many people. 

Two months before the publication of the oral contraceptive study about which he waxed lyrical, Professor Short contributed this little gem to the debate:

"It is so simple; we have already invented a pill that will prevent global warming – the oral contraceptive pill. A recent study by Thomas Wire of the London School of Economics www.optimumpopulation.org) has shown that each seven dollars spent on meeting the unmet demand for family planning between 2010 and 2050 would reduce CO2 emissions by over a tonne, which is 4 times more cost-effective than any conventional solution. If women the world over were given easy access to the contraceptive pill, every birth could become a wanted birth, and human population growth would almost come to a halt. But getting that simple message across to our self-seeking politicians and economists will probably take another lifetime, and so the Asian elephant will become extinct after all. "

It would be nice if all vets interested in elephant testicles would actually walk the talk. A bit more investigation shows that Professor Short

….is married to Professor Marilyn Renfree and they have two children, Tamsin, 23, and Kirsten, 20. He also has four children from a previous marriage, among them a vet working in developing countries, a GP, a psychiatrist and an economist.

Indeed one could argue that Professor Short has failed in two ways.

Firstly, he didn’t take his own advice, and secondly, doesn’t appear to know how to read a medical study, or study the criticisms of that study in any meaningful way.

Does Professor Short think that his six children are more worthy than others?

And do planned children use less global resources than unplanned children?

In fact, might not his well paid, high flying, perhaps over-consuming six children (who will also have goodness knows how many children), be a far worse influence on global warming than 100 unplanned children in Africa?

However, of interest, ... given that his solution is fewer people on this planet,...  is his new line of endeavour:

...the development of new ways to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV in men and women. Intra vaginal lemon juice, once widely used as a contraceptive, might prove to be a natural microbicide, since it can kill HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in culture. Clinical trials are in progress in the Department of Obstetrics, University of Jos, Nigeria. All the details are at www.aids.net.au.

Lemon Juice.

The next saviour of the world, oh vey.

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