Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum“The right of the people to keep and bear children shall not be infringed.”
Children can easily be viewed as assault weapons in the mankind's war against nature. Biological weapons of mass destruction, even. After all, people and their actions are what is destroying the planetary biosphere.
Children arent simply weapons of course, even when they are used in armies. But they are certainly wanton destructive agents, especially as they age and buy SUVs and houses.
I dont have any of the pernicious little things, so luckily I have avoided the biologically and culturally programmed sentimentality about them.
Im half kidding, but only half. In my assessment the planet contains about 1000 times too many people, and 140 million new children each year are obviously the source of our growing population overload.
Those of us who love life have a responsibility not to create too much of it
CompanyFirstSergeant
(1,558 posts)...but I always thought it was immoral to attempt to raise more children than was appropriate for...
1) The 'replacement rate' - at statistically somewhere between 2 and 3 children per couple, and...
2) A family to raise within their economic means.
Kip Humphrey
(4,753 posts)hatrack
(59,439 posts)Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)If everybody had 2, we would stop growing.
The US could even change the tax code, so beginning in 2018, the tax break for children is capped at 2.(for any children born after 2018)
If you want more, you are free, but taypayers wont subsidize them.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)I think child-bearing should be subject to a waiting period, just like buying a gun. I suggest starting with a cooling-off period of about 30 years.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)The resolution of the world's humanity problem isn't going to be "enforced" by anyone except Mother Nature. Again, in my opinion.
NickB79
(19,113 posts)We're several billion humans beyond carrying capacity right now. Just look at the damage 7 billion humans is doing. Stabilizing at current numbers guarantees our destruction.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Just blanket yourself in the minutiae of population growth reduction, and you'll be insulated from the roar of the world collapsing under our weight.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Miniaturize people. Hell, we went from computers that filled a warehouse-sized room to computers that fit in your pocket. Surely we can genetically engineer people to be about the size of a bumble bee. Then we'll have so much more room for tiny little cities, and we'd use up so much less in the way of resources. And wouldn't a world full of tiny little people just be soooo cute?
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Billions of tiny people, that is! Sometimes the most brilliant ideas are so simple that their genius looks like ... well, something else.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,150 posts)"It is my sad duty to inform you of a four foot restriction on humanoid height."
(Extract from conversation of Joe Ordinary in Local Puborama)
"I hear the directors of Genetic Control have been buying all the
properties that have recently been sold, taking risks oh so bold.
It's said now that people will be shorter in height,
they can fit twice as many in the same building site.
(they say it's alright),
Beginning with the tenants of the town of Harlow,
in the interest of humanity, they've been told they must go,
told they must go-go-go-go."
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/genesis/getemoutbyfriday.html
That was written about 1972, and that section of the song is set in the distant future of 2012!
Response to GliderGuider (Original post)
guyton This message was self-deleted by its author.
Mary Mac
(323 posts)And maybe one per second marriage.
NickB79
(19,113 posts)Mary Mac
(323 posts)Nice if him to take refugees, however. To digress I don't think secular Christian Europe is a good fit for Muslim refugees. Mexco more sensible. But back to topic. Religions are the worst offenders for overpopulation.
pscot
(21,023 posts)Probably sooner than anyone expects.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Even posts like this OP are mostly to remind people about the scope and scale of the predicament. And to keep the shit stirred so it doesn't burn.
My new motto is "We can't get there from here."
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Then our problem would be trying to keep the population from crashing. Kind of like the movie Children of Men.
hunter
(38,264 posts)...who only think it's those other people who should stop having kids.
Sadly, the motives of anyone pushing birth control and negative population growth are suspect.