IDEA: Don't have kids
Most of the planet's problems are caused by overpopulation. The current generations have used up far more than their fair share of the earth's resources. In the first world we can choose whether to procreate or not. Choose not to and give the next generations a fighting chance.
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Originally submitted by kaimatacroft on 14 Feb 2008
I'm not so sure.
Hmmm, I see where you're coming from but I don't think most people will agree. Perhaps encouraging one-child-families instead of 5-child families (for example) would work smoother with the general public. Many feel it's their right to bring up a child in the world and I'd never want to get in the way of that.
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We should all have kids
If everyone who gave a damn about environmental issues just stopped having kids, then we'd pretty quickly commit ourselves to extinction. Because those who still live with the fantasy of global waring doesn't exist will carry on raping the earth, and those who did care would have an ever diminishing political voice. Hard to be heard when you make up only .5% of the population
Now I'm in no way suggesting large families, but having children of your own is an excellent way to nurture and raise a human being that is fully aware of the issues our planet faces and will hopefully grow up to be a advocate for mother earth.
We live on a fairly unpopulated landmass by world standards, we live in a country where children can be educated to a fairly high degree, and we have an high awareness of what is happening in the world about us. I like to think of New Zealand as being a rather determined strong willed country, we don't usually let others kick us around, even when they're huge. I think we owe it to the earth to continue to have a voice on the world stage, and for that voice to have been educated and raised by people who care about these issues.
Great Cloth Nappy kids...
Fair enough pickles.
Also there were people who joined this forum becuase someone posted info about this website to the cloth nappy network... and then they joined up here, and there were cloth-nappy-network-mums bringing their kids to visit the bus while the Climate Rescue Bus Tour was on.
So there are potentially people who have increased their level of awareness and are taking action on climate (slightly indirectly!) as a result of their kids!
;-)
Consider adopting
Consider adopting children nationally. It'll increase your footprint, but you won't be contributing to overpopulation.
Don't forget, though, that many developed nations are facing an ageing population crises, so choosing not to raise a family is not as simple a solution to overpopulation (particularly when it's developing countries with low life expectancy rates that have the really high birth rates) as it may sound.
but right now...
Ok, so I have not had kids every day this week, and will not have kids all of next week too...
There are lots things that we all need to be doing - proactive steps to be taking every day whcih will reduce our impact on the climate.
If you chose not to have kids that's fine, but there are changes that those already born need to make to the way that we live our lives, and we can't be simply passing off blame to numbers becuase that's just not very constructive.
Bring a child into this world???
I don't think I want to bring a child into this world considering what this world has already come to now and the even worse things that the child would have to see in the future.