Ted Turner's 'dumb' one-child policy

Media mogul Ted Turner, a longtime advocate of population control, told attendees of the U.N.'s climate-change conference in Cancun, Mexico, that the world should adopt China's controversial one-child policy as a way to limit carbon emissions. The planet's current population of almost 7 billion will rise to 10 billion by 2050, say U.N. estimates, and Turner argued that "if we're going to be here [as a species] 5,000 years from now, we're not going to do it with seven billion people." Media wags were not amused:

So much for liberal thinking: "Turner better keep his hands (and his politics) off my uterus," says Jenny Erikson in The Stir. Besides, "who says we won’t be here in 5,000 years? I thought liberals were supposed to believe in evolution — survival of the fittest and all that jazz."

How did he become a billionaire again? OK, Turner is "not my go-to guy on climate anyway," but this qualifies as "dumb climate remark of the week," says Harry Eagar in The Maui News. Really, Ted, "if you're so rich, why are you dumb?"

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At least he's not sugar-coating it: Turner was pretty straightforward about this being "a radical approach to the environment," says Paula Bernstein in Strollerderby. And though it probably would reduce carbon emissions, as solutions to climate change go, "this isn't it."

Turner is hardly practicing what he preaches: Did you catch the "little factoid" about Turner having five kids, asks Theresa Walsh Giarrusso in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His idea is "just so wrong on so many levels." Hypocrisy is just one.

After you, Turner: "I wonder if the Ted's kids — or his ex-wives — ever ask him which child he regrets the most," asks Ed Driscoll in Pajamas Media. "If it's life and death, then act that way, Ted."