David Attenborough made some waves the other day calling us a “plague upon the Earth.” As I noted here, such “deep misanthropy” (as I call it), is becoming mainstream in the environmental movement. And now, Population Matters–the UK’s largest population control advocacy group, which Attenborough serves as a Patron–says Attenborough was absolutely right: We are indeed a “plague of locusts.” From the statement:

Sir David Attenborough, patron of Population Matters, has talked in an interview with the Radio Times of humanity being a plague on the Earth. What did he mean? Surely he does not mean that we are a disease? More probably, he was thinking of a plague of locusts, which consumes all that it sees, and then dies off. That analogy is apt.

Of course, environmentalists have been calling us insects for quite some time now. Example: David Suzuki thinks we’re “maggots.”

But radical depopulation isn’t the only goal of the deep misanthropes. PM also wants radical wealth redistribution. From its “Vision” statement:

Finally, sustainability means greater equity. Renewable resources are insufficient for many to live in great luxury, while continued dire poverty is a recipe for resource overexploitation and conflict. Our vision, then, is of a global community with a relatively equal lifestyle, living in balance with nature and respecting the valid claims of all of its members.

Thus, the destitute won’t be allowed to grow into prosperity by developing resources, we will be compelled by our environmental overlords to shrink and share–and all will then live “sustainable” lives on a radically depopulated planet.

Population Matters insists this will all be done through convincing all of us to voluntarily change. But deep misanthrope, radical Malthusianism, and the drive for wealth distribution are all Utopian endeavors. Voluntary measures will never attain these goals, meaning that eventually their converging ends will come to justify coercive means.