The notion that children are a form of pollution has true believers outside Australia. London's Daily Mail, which, in addition to (or perhaps because of) its salacious gossip and titillating photos, is a remarkable chronicler of the contemporary mores, recently profiled a 35-year-old woman, Toni Vernelli, who was sterilised to "protect the planet" about 8 years ago. Several doctors refused to do the operation, but she "relentlessly" hunted one down. Her boyfriend, whom she met at an animal rights demonstration, even gave her a congratulations card.

"Having children is selfish," she says. "It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet. 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." She is happy with what the Daily Mail, in a burst of bourgeois moralising, deems "the reversal of nature and denial of motherhood". She has 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." ~ Daily Mail, Nov 21