To think restricting the amount of children someone has could help the planet?

[foryourown]

The disclaimer being that it wouldn't be lawful nor morally right to control a woman's reproductive system.

But the fact still stands that for the environment, it would be beneficial for people to just stop reproducing like they do?

Who would've thought abortion is good for the planet, eh?

I don't think there's any type of way around it. Apart from perhaps benefit packages in place for families who do stick with 1....

In this country we would need more immigration. We have a lowering birth rate and you need young people to pay taxes to enable our aging population to be cared for and use of the NHS. On a world stage: that’s a different conversation.

I agree and it surely has to happen across the world at some point?

There was a post the other day, not sure if real or not, but a woman asking if she should have a 6th child!!

With everything else that's going on in the world, and if I had my time again, I'm not even sure I'd have any children.

Google China One child policy. It’s already been done with catastrophic results.

People are reproducing at below replacement rate, world population will eventually fall even if we do nothing.

The was an amusing bit on the video linked to in another thread this morning, where have explained to the Swedish Green party that the world population was going to increase by 4 billion even if no extra children were born, he went on to tell them that all they needed to do reduce the birth rate in Sweden to 25% below replacement rate, was abolish child benefit, free childcare, charge school fees etc.

Apparently the Greens weren't up for that. (And couldn't have got/stayed elected if they were.)

Pink I'm aware of what China have done. And I've seen evidence of the utter heartbreak they've caused some women.

The only way it may work is to provide a positive to those who only have 1/2 kids, rather than punish those having more. So if you stick to 2, then you get something in return. If you have more, you don't get those rewards.
People should really start being more responsible, however you're up against a huge Catholic population around the world who won't use contraception, up against population with no reliable access to contraception and you're up against countries who don't actually teach sex ed; just abstinence, which doesn't work.

Can't help but think it would be like putting a plaster over a gapping wound.
Something to do to placate the masses so it seems like something is being done but will have an almost negligible effect long term.

I only had one child for that very reason. I'd have liked more and it makes me angry when people have loads of kids just for the hell of it. I don't say anything of course but it is selfish.

Would you limit just the mother or the couple? I can see problems if a woman were told she wasn't allowed any children with her current partner because he already had two elsewhere - not to mention a massive increase in paternity testing.

The best way to reduce the population is to provide free birth control to everyone who wants it.
The second best way is to educate women and open professions to them. This is also good for economic growth. The reason we have a falling birthrate in this country is because women are going to university, entering professions, and putting off having children/limiting their family size because of the negative effect children will have on their career and because their job makes it harder to find a partner. Sadly, that also means many women leave it too late and are then unable to have children.
Yes, it would better for the planet if people had fewer children. If we follow current trends, we will eventually get a fairly static population, and probably then a falling one.

How would you do this without replicating the Chinese policy

Back in the 80s my mum was referred to as a "breeder" because she had four children, that the population was too high and that people shouldn't have more than one child.
Now we are being told we don't have enough people and need immigration as a result. This makes her angry as she may have had more children- stopped due to reason above- and feels she has been betrayed.
If you want people to stop having children due to overpopulation you have to stop/ control immigration as well.

I think there is an agenda behind these threads, 2nd one today

You can’t limit having children without limiting immigration, it won’t work, also there’s no point limiting children here while Africa’s population doubles

By 2070, the bulk of the world's population growth is predicted to take place in Africa: of the additional 2.4 billion people projected between 2015 and 2050, 1.3 billion will be added in Africa, 0.9 billion in Asia and only 0.2 billion in the rest of the world.

Isn’t that what the tories are trying to do by not paying any more tax credits for anyone with over 2 kids? In France it’s the opposite, you only get their equivalent of child benefit once you have 2 children and there are financial benefits ie higher tax credits equivalent for having 3 or more kids.

You can’t limit having children without limiting immigration, it won’t work, also there’s no point limiting children here while Africa’s population doubles

I can't claim to know the specifics but surely Africa is a 'lesser' problem, with regards to reproduction, since they don't cause the damage we do to the planet with all our constant consumerism, carbon footprints, cars, etc etc.

I'm not saying that doesn't exist in Africa but less so.

Just stop paying people to have children. If people want children, then they can fund them themselves via work!

You know what else would help the planet, eating our own dead.

Or having worker people live in a big underground city, with 10 hour a day shift rotation and a giant cog filled machine to work at....

We could open disused subway stations and send them down there, have them generate electricity using turbine bikes....

Maybe even teach them from a young age to worship a statue of me their leader.

Yes but the majority of Africans want to come to Europe, Europe has encouraged immigration, we have less children so we need more immigration, Europeans won’t exist if we stop having children.

i don't think limiting procreation is inherently wrong. It just has to be an extreme enough situation to be warranted. If we were living in an enclosed bunker that could provide oxygen to precisely 1000 people, then we would have no choice but to only allow babies as people died. The earth is a closed bunker in its own way, but right now we have so many options as to how to allocate resources that limiting children is not the only or even the ideal option for maintaining the ecosystem.

they don't give child tax credit for anymore than 2 children now, so i suppose that helps.

Well it seems to have worked brilliantly for China

In the first world its an aging population. Surely rather than reducing new births it would make more sense to stop forcing people to live in horrible condition in old age?
I mean people who are fighting to be euthanised, people who have been comatosed or in a vegatative state

I fully agree. You don’t need to have 6 kids

they don't give child tax credit for anymore than 2 children now, so i suppose that helps.

That's for the woman or men living with a woman in a domestic relationship. But men can go about sprogging up any woman who'll get with him and as long as she's only got 1 and doesn't live with him, claim away (no longer tax credits, btw, all new claims are UC).