Jillian Bandes

"Obviously, the choice to reproduce contributes to future environmental impacts. There are immediate effects caused by each offspring over his or her lifetime, but, should the offspring reproduce, additional impacts could potentially accrue over many future generations," the researchers wrote.

Mazel also agreed with the report's idea of carbon accumulation over generations.

"There is still a lot of play in the population projections — there could be between eight and 12 billion of us by mid-century. That's going to make a lot of difference for a lot of things.... environmentalists and a lot of others believe that we should aim for the lower end of that spectrum," she said.

Alyssa Cordova, a lecture director at the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, said that the very idea that family preferences should be affected by concerns about global warming was ridiculous. Cordova said that the study was based on liberals' hatred of traditional family values and penchant for using climate change alarmism to attack those ideas.

"To conservatives, people are a blessing and a resource, but to liberals in the environmental movement they are nothing more than parasites on the Earth," she said. "To say that American women should be discouraged from having children because of a 'larger carbon footprint is absurd."

McElhinney had similar sentiments.

"This is a massive flaw in the environmentalists’ philosophy; leaving humans out of the environmental equation. And the idea that humans can be compared to animals is absolutely ridiculous," she said. "We can't be compared to animals, to that kind of bestiality."

Jillian Bandes

Jillian Bandes is the National Political Reporter for Townhall.com