Race-Baiting Conservative Media Accuse Al Gore of Wanting to ‘Control’ Africa’s Population

A new conservative narrative on global warming is forming around the nucleus of a remark that former Vice President Al Gore made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week. In the 40-second clip, Gore talks about reproductive freedom, among other things, as a way to alleviate a predicted population explosion on the continent of Africa, which the wingers have perverted into “Advocating population control specifically for Africa.”

The remark has been widely reported in the conservative media, but so far, only The Right Scoop has the video, in which Gore says “Depressing the rate of child mortality, educating girls, empowering women, and making fertility management ubiquitously available so women can choose how many children and the spacing of children, is crucial to the future shape of human civilization,” adding that “Africa’s projected to have more people than China or India by mid-century. More than China and India combined by the end of the century. And this is one of the causal factors that must be addressed.”

The site cites a conservative think tank accusing Gore of “Advocating population control specifically for Africa,” and calling it “just another form of imperialism.”

Gore is clearly advocating for reproductive choice and freedom for African women, not “control,” a fact that is reinforced by his call to lower the rate of child mortality. It doesn’t fit in with the narrative, but was apparently too conspicuous to excise from the clip.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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