A coalition of ecology groups say they are a step closer to convincing the United Nations to abolishing the World Health Organisation and forcing humanitarian charities to cease their work saving human lives but continue to pay for on-going conservation work.
The group of eco-mentalists, led by The Green World Initiative, says the emphasis on improving the lives and health of peoples around the world is incompatible with efforts to save threatened flora and fauna, as an steadily increasing world population requires increasing amounts of natural resources, which in turn puts the planet's wildlife under greater threat.
"The equation is actually quite simple" Max Harrison from the GWI told reporters in New York. "Essentially, we're asking the UN to approve proposals that would pressure Governments around the world to ask charities like Oxfam, Christian Aid, MSF and The Red Cross and Red Crescent to stop all their work saving human lives and put their considerable funding into saving the world around us."
"The humanitarian charities have been far too successful, lead by the WHO's eradication of smallpox. Had that disease, combined with cholera, typhus and malaria been allowed to continue unabated, combined with the effects of natural disasters worldwide, the global population would be far more manageable and wildlife would be in a more stable and recoverable state."
"Take the seas for example, Global fish stocks have plummeted because trendy westerners think eating fish will improve their brain power and is better for them than meat. However, the consequence of their love of Sea Bass, Cod, Haddock, Tuna and sushi, has left fish stocks under such pressure that it's quite possible that many species will be extinct in 10 years time."
"The only way to combat that is to stop saving human lives, let people die as they would have without intervention, and let the natural world recover."
But the proposal has been attacked from all sides by the charities targeted.
"This suggestion is not only abhorrent, it is also unworkable. There is no way out core fund-raising bases will be able to reconcile their desire to salve their knitted tie-wearing consciences if we can't allow them to sponsor a child living in some squalid developing world slum and have to spend it on some animal they've only ever seen on a David Attenborough documentary." Marcia Bushnell from The Red Cross responded.
"The best thing I can suggest as a response to these proposals is that Mr Harrison sets us all an example and kills himself. After all, with his jet-setting to lobby groups around the world, he's threatening the world himself. I'm sure there's a Polar Bear that would be alive today if he'd died before opening his mouth."