People like to get worked up about the subject of condoms, and why not? We encourage that.

What are we talking about when we talk about condoms? Sex!

When we talk about condoms in terms of protecting the environment, we are talking about population and health, but we are not talking about population and health control. Condoms are about choice—the choice to have children or not, the choice to protect one’s health, and the choice to think about the future of the planet. What’s the best way to save the earth for future generations? Solar panels, wind power, electric cars? All good ideas, but the best—and maybe the most exciting idea—might be condoms. According to a new report from the London School of Economics and commissioned by Optimum Population Trust, using contraception to fight climate change saves nearly five times as much money as your typical low-carbon technology.

UN data suggests that meeting unmet need for family planning would reduce unintended births by 72 percent, reducing projected world population in 2050 by half a billion. And that statistic just addresses married women. From the the United Nations Population Fund: “community studies suggest that between 10 and 40 percent of young, unmarried women have experienced unwanted pregnancy.” Many discussions about reducing population over the last forty years have involved the developing world, where the population is growing faster than in the developed world. Focusing entirely on the developing world is misguided on a number of levels, to say the least.

At the moment each new child in the US adds 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to burning 972,160 gallons of gas. An American child’s carbon footprint is 20-30 times greater than a child born in Bangladesh. But the truth is that nations like China and India once considered “developing” are now industrializing at an ever-increasing rate. As the carbon footprint per person of a growing world population expands exponentially, the issue of the impact of rising population on climate change will become more important every year.

Ask yourself: what is the most fun you can have protecting the earth for our children (or your neighbor’s children)? Never before has the power to choose been more important to the future of humanity and the future of the planet, and never before has being virtuous felt so good.

Get the G20 to support the economic empowerment of girls and women by signing the petition in TAKE ACTION NOW.

Contributed by Jud Ireland, CEO of Naked Condoms