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 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 weak justifications of how you are raising productive members of society.
#4 by mahaan on February 26, 2012 - 3:27 pm
First of all could not reply for a long time cause of other engagements. But it is better late than never.
First of all none of the 5-6 paragraph which required you to google search some link and paste in second sense actually nullifies or rebuts any pints i raised.
You seem to be reiterating the same misconstrued sense of reality. You seem to have taken a convenient choice and are just labeling it as your contribution.
For me that is “bullshit”. You are not doing anything for environment earth but you are helping yourself so that you can have a carefree life and enjoy. Lot of such pretentious people would cause more harm to the planet by other means wasting resources/not using public transports/using carry bags and others than actually contributing.
If everybody goes by one child per family the population would actually decrease. If people follow your idiotic ideology there will more mortality rate than birth rate and more than half of the population will be old.
Your desperation for a self approval is visible in the two comments and the mail you send me to read your reply. Finally i am not writing these comments for you to opt out i donot care as there are many sensible people out there. the comments are just to give any reader a sense of reality than your ticking population bomb ticking hypothesis.
Population and limited natural resources is a problem but not having a child is not a solution. If road accidents are problem then solution is not to stop driving and million other parallel i can give. It is as simple as that yet not that simple as you think to solve.
You need a lot of thinking to do. Check out the facts and figures and analyze just relying on some other views are not enough. You did not do that but for anybody else i would request to check out facts before taking such major step. If you do not want a child it is choice everybody has a right to take but don not label it as achievement/contribution novel job to feel good about yourself. Take it as a personal choice you took nothing else.
#5 by therider on February 26, 2012 - 11:08 pm
Interesting discussion. But again, to each his own.
My ideology is not mainstream, so of course it will sound “bullshit” to the majority. I have formed my ideals after years of research and I am going to stick to it.
Remember that opting out is not about living a carefree life, but rather the bigger question is what kind of world is waiting for the next generation when they grow up. Given how the world is controlled by greedy corporations, I can only imagine unemployment and atrocities going through the roof in near future. There are consequences of boundless, reckless growth which unless we address ruthlessly, we have to witness a civilization collapse in this century.
Of course, not having a kid is not a solution to the population problem, but it is a part of the solution. Driving as less as possible is also a part of the solution to road accidents caused by frustrated drivers in congested roads.
VHEMT is a very commendable movement.