Mike Lee says the solution to climate change is having more babies

“More babies will mean forward-looking adults, the sort we need to tackle long-term, large scale problems,” Lee said.

Lee delivered his speech, accompanied by blow-up images depicting Ronald Reagan riding a dinosaur and Aquaman riding a seahorse, ahead of a test vote on the progressive Green New Deal resolution, which calls for a radical overhaul of the economy to lower carbon emissions.

The resolution is a broad mission statement, but offers little in the way of specific policies, or methods, to curb climate change.

“American babies, in particular, are likely to be wealthier, better educated, and more conservation-minded than children raised in still-industrializing countries,” Lee said. Lee has backed proposals to provide paid family leave to new parents and to expand the child tax credit.

Lee cited Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University, to reinforce his argument. Cowen, who is also an opinion writer for Bloomberg, recently wrote that climate change can be solved by having more children, which increases the capacity for innovation.

Cowen cited Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer in making that case. Romer had said that more people create bigger markets for innovations.

“The courage needed to solve climate change is nothing compared to the courage needed to start a family,” Lee concluded in his speech.