Feature Aug 15, 2018 at 4:00 am

Sure, the Voluntary Extinction Movement Doesn’t Want You to Have Babies—But There’s Much More to the Story

Comments

1

Thanks for the hilarious article. Portlandia, indeed. Birthrates are declining in wealthy countries for broad economic and demographic reasons that are unlikely to be influenced one way or another by fringe philosophies. One wonders how VHEMT plans to influence decisionmaking in places that matter, like, say the Indian subcontinent or Africa. I'll give them this: at least they seem to stop short of wishing for pandemic catastrophies as their cousins in EarthFirst have done.

2

Terrence McKenna once suggested that the best thing we can do for the planet is to agree to not have more than one child. As this is less than replacement rate the population would come down naturally without need for wars or pandemics to a level that is much more suitable for the closed eco-system that is the earth.

3

PS it’s not just those people in India and Africa. Americans use up far more resources per capita .

4

We're a child free by choice couple in our 50's. Couldn't be happier with our life choices, and humans are a plague on the planet.

5

C. Elliott, congratulations! You and your partner have earned the Meritorious Service Award: for service to planet Earth and the human family. I wouldn't call us a plague, though the effects on the biosphere of our activities may resemble one. Unlike a mindless pathogen, we can use our compassion and rational thought to realize what we're doing and stop it.

6

This is some good stuff. I already fathered two kids, that I know of. But this shit makes me want to go father some more.

7

The first world population, especially the population of the United States uses more of the world's resources than the rest of the world and is directly responsible for the most climate change and the climate change disasters that affect third world countries first. It won't matter, soon, whether human beings choose to stop overpopulating the earth or not. Once we have destroyed the earth (and no matter how many people continue to deny it and pretend it's not happening), there will be no more human beings. It will take a long time, likely 10,000 years or more, but the earth will hopefully recover from what humanity did to it and if it does recover, there will be no trace of humanity left.

8

Thanks for use of the biased and unprofessional term "breeding" for people. Surprised it came from a woman. Remember the criticism of Trump for calling Omarosa a "dog"? How comparisons to animals are used to demean people? Knock it off.

9

Demondog, fathering is an active pursuit and you’d know it if you were doing it. Impregnating is so simple even a dog that’s not a demon could do it.
Christina Rae, you’re right that we wealthy people cause the most damage to the biosphere, but that means we can do the most good by choosing to forego further procreation. We’re causing the sixth extinction and it has taken five to ten million years for biodiversity to be restored after the previous five. The sooner we go extinct the faster Earth’s biosphere will recover.
Reverend Bite Me, we are animals and we breed… unless we think first. Most insults using non-human animals are of domesticated animals. We bred them to be less than wild, and we disrespect them for it. If they bite us, in the end, can we blame them?

10

Les U Knight you should get an award for the most creative troll lately.

11

Is it really a violation of human rights to not allow others to have as many offspring as they want? I recommend the book "One Child: Do We Have a Right to More?" by Sarah Conly on this topic.


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