I just ordered this book from Amazon: Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife. Can’t wait to read.
Found this book while surfing the web. The reviews on Amazon resonated loudly with my world view of 33 years of existence. I realized how much pride I take in not my life’s trivial achievements, but my ability to think about and understand the gravity of the overpopulation problem. It saddens me to no end that the reckless, parasitic growth of our race is eradicating wilderness and wildlife at a breakneck speed. It is shocking that our population grew more in the last 40 years than in the previous 3 million.
I know I can’t do much about it. I can’t defuse the population bomb and the calamity that is about to ensue. But I am awfully proud to make the most impact a single human can do, by staying childfree. This is the best decision of my life and I wake up full of energy every morning because of this. I am most thankful to my lovely wife for sticking with me on this “uncommon” life path. I wish more and more people like us would muster the courage to defy the endless societal brainwashing, and think harder before bringing new lives in this screwed up world. It is going to be nothing but a grueling existence for the poor souls.
#1 by Mahaan on February 15, 2012 - 2:00 pm
I dont think you opted out to be childless to actually contibute to stopping population.
I think it was a convienient choice you took to shun away your responsibilties. Having a child and bringing him up is not just about going by tradition or following somebody’s lead. It is about giving back the society a better individual somebody who can continue contributing even when you are gone.
The reason you wake feeling light because you have no responsibilties and not because you have done something great.Like you said you wrongly classified your ignorance and slackness as “trivial achievement”.
Child is not a plastic bag that you dont use one and you reduce pollution. Plastic dont decompose but humans die. In a world where there are so many less privileged people somebody like you who can raise a child with all amenities to be good person helping the society to chosse a twisted/false sense of righteousness is sad!!
#2 by therider on February 15, 2012 - 2:27 pm
I agree each person has their own point of view. I would not slap a right/wrong label to your thoughts on this. Rather I would like to point out my thought process.
This is not about righteousness, but following my own idea of occupying a small footprint on this planet. Opting out of children is basically a part of the solution to overpopulation. Just my act alone is surely trivial in the big picture, but it means I am not responsible for the consumption of food/water/space by another human and his/her descendents. There is no guarantee how the next generation turns out, and the benefits do not outweigh the ecological cost to me, particularly when the earth is inhabited by 7 billion of us. We are the nothing but a cancer of the earth.
Humans die, for sure, but remember we are adding 250k new humans to this small planet every day (births minus deaths). Can you really believe how horrible this growth rate is, when we have basically overshot the carrying capacity of the earth ? Moreover, having a baby in the developed world is an ecological crime, and this has been said decades ago.
I feel that opting out is the most responsible thing I have ever done in my life and no amount of bingo-ing out of ignorance of the real facts is going to change that. With my free time I can actually focus on volunteering and conservation efforts, and raising awareness of the impending population crisis. There is so much to do that a normal parent just can’t do, they only pass the real tasks to the next generation, ad infinitum.
There is a reason the childfree are on the rise. And all of them are educated, with a capacity to think beyond “family”.
It is sad that I am losing and will continue to lose many of my friends who think in terms of right/wrong like you and willfully ignore the natural cataclysm we are heading to at a breakneck speed. Technology is not going to solve that, for sure.
#3 by therider on February 15, 2012 - 3:27 pm
Please also read this: http://www.naturalnews.com/029056_environmental_protection_population_control.html
Having kids *is* an *irresponsible* thing to do for our environment right now. It leads to all the reckless self-destructive “growth” we call modern civilization. If you have one, do it because you really want to experience parenthood, instead of throwing bullshit justifications of how you are raising productive members of society.