The Center For Biological Diversity is promoting population control with condoms that bear conservation messages.
Center for Biological Diversity
An unlikely group is distributing condoms this holiday season. The Center for Biological Diversity wants to make family planning an environmental issue.
The Center's argument is simple. The world's human population is 7 billion and counting. And that's a major driver of problems like climate change and habitat loss.
Jerry Karnas runs the campaign. He says each of the center's condoms features an endangered animal with a message. To illustrate, he describes the message on the condom that carries the image of a Florida panther.
"It's 'don't go bare, panthers are rare,'" Karnas says. "'Safe intercourse saves the dwarf seahorse.' 'Wrap with care, save the polar bear.' And then each one has a little endangered species and population fact sheet inside the condom package."
Karnas says in the Northwest, the Tacoma pocket gopher went extinct this week due to pressure from habitat loss and suburban development.
The center is donating the condoms to campus health centers, bars, and volunteers. They've gone to about 30 distributors each in Oregon and Washington, and four in Idaho.
