What does climate change have to do with sex? According to a new study — and no, we’re not making this up — global warming is heating up everything except people’s love lives. “Climate change has been blamed for many things over the years. Never, until now, has anyone thought it was possible to see it as a kind of contraceptive,” writes Bloomberg’s Eric Roston. Apparently, global warming is the one contraceptive alarmists won’t embrace. “Hot weather leads to diminished ‘coital frequency,’ according to a new working paper put out by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Three economists studied 80 years of U.S. fertility and temperature data and found that when it’s hotter than 80 degrees F, a large decline in births follows within 10 months. Would-be parents tend not to make up for lost time in subsequent, cooler months. An extra ‘hot day’ … leads to a 0.4 percent drop in birth rates nine months later, or 1,165 fewer deliveries across the U.S. A rebound in subsequent months makes up just 32 percent of the gap.”

Assuming no significant steps are taken to curb greenhouse gases, the study predicts 2.6% fewer births between 2070 and 2099 in the U.S. as the number of 80-degree days will allegedly rise. But since when are they worried about insufficient childbirths? The subtitle to the Bloomberg article states that “fewer babies would be bad news” — and we agree. But some warmists advocate population controls as a panacea to climate change. Moreover, according to Roston, “Control over the climate at home might make a difference [in sexual intercourse]. The researchers suggest that the rise of air conditioning may have helped offset some heat-related fertility losses in the U.S. since the 1970s.” But air conditioning contributes to CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere. Are they now suggesting more of that is now a good thing? As usual, this study points out more contradictions than it does actual problems. Oh the lonely lives of ecofascists.