RUSH: Actual op-ed headline, from NBC News: “Science Proves Kids Are Bad for Earth. Morality Suggests We Stop Having Them.”

The author, Travis Rieder, says having kids is a big contributor to climate change. “Having a child,” he says, “imposes high emissions on the world, while the parents get the benefit. So like with any high-cost luxury, we should limit our indulgence.” He says it’s only logical for “everyone on earth” to consider having fewer children, a view that’s spreading in the academic community.

Rieder isn’t some under-performing salesman at Planned Parenthood. He holds a Ph.D, and is the Director of the Bioethics degree program at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Rieder explains that if having one fewer kid can reduce your contribution to the harm from climate change then you’re making a “morally relevant” choice. He doesn’t think we should “shame” parents. But since “we face the very real prospect of catastrophic climate change, difficult even uncomfortable conversations are important.”

Dr. Rieder. Here’s another difficult conversation. If science supposedly proves kids are bad for the earth by the same token, science must also “prove” that adults, like yourself, are even worse.

So if you’re really serious about saving the earth, have you ever thought about… Like ten stories should do it.