To think the human race should respectfully die out?

[RomeoLikedCapuletGirls]

I’m not being goady as I’ve genuinely thought about this over the past few years as the following issues have come to the fore:

Climate change
Industrial meat industry
Pandemics

I’ve tried being vegan but always revert to eating meat for health. I’ve come to the conclusion that it was a much needed part of our evolution. The problem is of course the intensive whole scale nature of it, and the suffering it causes. Even the plant industry causes a lot of damage to the environment and ecosystems. The sheer numbers of humans needing feeding is the problem.

Again, with climate change. It’s a question of over-population. The more of us there are the more we deplete our earth’s resources we deplete. Limiting consumption is simply not working so we need something else.

And although we might crack Coronavirus, there’ll be another virus along soon to challenge us. And it’ll spread quickly because there are so many of us.

I’m not advocating mass suicide of course!

Just that we encourage our offspring to not have children until we have either died out or at the very least reduced our numbers to such a point that we are just one species amongst many, living on this planet and not causing the disproportionate amount of harm to the environment and other animals.

There’s nothing to argue that the human race should continue forever.

There is a problem but your 'solution' is extreme.

@HMSSophie 😂😂😂 You planning to consult your family as to whether or not they agree to this sacrifice?

After the toddler years i amazed why anyone would want another child anyway!
Joking aside, i do agree op but the only way that species are successful is by selfish reproduction and selfish sf promotion. This is why the most vile, selfish people often ' get ahead.'
On a personal note i much prefer animals to humans and am happy on lockdown with minimal interaction with my own species and my lovely cat and tortoise for company! But i am aware that i sound like a misery!!

Most yes that would be good. Although isn’t the impact from one wealthy western family hugely greater?

Isn't that the speech Matthew mcconaughy gave in true detective? I'm gonna go find a link now

Does having more children help one get ahead, who knew? I wonder if the people on this thread happy and willing to sacrifice their lives and the lives of their families for the planet bothered to lockdown? What’s the point, should’ve gone and locked some door handles instead.

Here's the link nsfw (swearwords)

What's the point of the earth if there are no people to enjoy it? Absolutely reduce climate change for our future generations, lowering population would help with this. But to make the entire human race extinct? What's the point?

Must say I’ve often wondered - if humans were wiped out - how long it’d take for vegetation to obliterate virtually all signs that we were ever there.
You only have to see how a neglected garden so soon turns into a jungle, with tree saplings sprouting up all over the place.

Near us was a petrol station that was closed. Within only about a year, as it lay empty, the very large concrete forecourt became so covered with vegetation (mostly the sort of non-fussy weeds that will spring up anywhere) that you could barely see the concrete any more. If it had remained empty much longer (it’s now the site of a care home) I’m sure there would soon have been trees, too, as the first growth broke up the concrete.

I’d guess that it’d only take about a hundred years for any future alien visitor to assume - at least at first - that Planet Earth had only ever been home to plants and animals.

Over-population is a huge problem

And it is the children in developed nations who will consume the most resources.

I'm not sure we can trust the market to price children out of reach of many, but that has happened spontaneously to an extent - hasn't average births per woman gone down from just over 2 to just under 2?

Small families are already the norm, and I think encouraging that trend will be all to the good.

At the same time, we need proper water and sanitation globally. This will have the double benefit of removing the need to have baby after baby in the hope that some might survive to adulthood, and remove the need for girls to be forced out of education to be water carriers. Better educated girls is a strong driver of social change, including reducing the number of children born

Selfish self promotion i mean.
Fir example, as a young adult i was a passionate environmentalist and got very down about all this. But it wasnt healthy and i wasn't thriving. As i grew older i realised that as a human i am inherantly selfish, it is human nature and that i need to enjoy life. Of course i do care about the environment and have 1 child , recycle etc but i no longer beat myself up about " being human" . We are here for one life and our job is to thrive aswell as survive. Unfortunately that means being " selfish" which isnt the same as being destructive.
But would i sacrifice myself to save a herd of elephants? No , of course not. I love elephants and would be devastated if they went extinct but i would want to survive if it was me against them. Sorry for the awful analogy!

how long it’d take for vegetation to obliterate virtually all signs that we were ever there

See if you can find this to watch

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath:_Population_Zero

Last building stanfpding, the Hoover Dam

If aliens discovered that planet, they'd think pinnacle of civilisation was Ancient Egypt - whose records carved in stone will survive. Paper, film etc will all decay

www.vhemt.org
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

We're extremely arrogant as a species to think we can terraform and manage animals and forests as we see fit. We're not making the best job of it because we're not actually as clever as we think we are.

Gosh, what a defeatist attitude. We are aware of the problems Earth has because people are highlighting it and bringing awareness. Already, there are attempts to try to restore the planet.
Yes, there’s a lot of work to be done and other solutions to come up with and hopefully, that can happen.
Get involved in some environmental work, support a charity, join one.
No need to give up and die.

I agree Op. Sad though it may be, humans are an absolute plague on this beautiful planet. I made the decision years ago to not reproduce to try and do my part and I've been vegan for over 15 years, it's not enough though I know.

Also struggling to get my head around the posters who can't seem to see "the point" of the planet without humans. That elephants wouldn't be debating? Wow - the sheer ego and lack of appreciation of the natural world. This planet would be so much better of without us, the other animals who are just as entitled to live and breed here as us would have more resources and humans take from this planet, every other species gives as well as takes.

But you have kids! So do as I say and not as I do? More front than Blackpool!

Maybe we need the human "R" rate to be less than one, so that we don't continue to grow exponentially. I.e. each couple only have 2 children or fewer, effectively replacing themselves but not overall increasing the population.

I'm puzzled that people are not seeing the surely uncontroversial point that the environment is under strain because of what we do to maintain our huge population.

I don't personally have much interest in an Earth without human beings - but I would rather the humans on Earth all had a decent quality of life - which cannot happen if we destroy the environment.

It's strange - everyone thinks a one child policy is cruel - does no one think whole families drowning in the Mediterranean, or generations of people living and dying in refugee camps, or starving to death anywhere is cruel? We have caused these things. Deliberately refusing to continue exponential population growth would alleviate them.

Perdita If you had the choice would you impose a blanket one child policy? Would you be ok with it personally?

(imagining you hadn’t already had multiple dc if you have them)

If people want to do what they think is the right thing that’s great. It’s more an issue if it’s something someone else should do instead.

And it’s no small thing, to limit or stop procreation

Why do people get so angry about debate these days. Especially theoretical debate. It seems to be everywhere. You’re either right or wrong and that’s that. No interesting thinking about ideas that obviously won’t happen.
Debate used to be something we did well. Now everyone is called a Fucking idiot for wanting to debate.

Anyway back to the OP. Yes I think the demise of humans would be the best thing for the planet and I’m sure it will happen one day. And in all likelihood it will be through some kind of continuous pandemics or an ice age. I don’t think it will be through climate change.

I totally agree, and I've been saying this ever since I can remember.

Flying people posting trite comments about other people dying off isn’t debate.

You debate. Bring something better to the conversation.

Flying,

If you like debate, you need to define your terms. What do you mean by then best thing for the planet’. Do you believe the planet has some form of consciousness?

While it's great for people to be in charge of their own fertility and in general that results in fewer kids, it doesn't actually solve anything on it's own. We cannot make things better just by people not having kids. We cannot guarantee everyone a decent quality of life just by not having kids.

Having more brings its own problems, but having less doesn't automatically solve anything. It is quite possible and we can already see now that a small part of the world's population to take significantly more resources. Just having fewer people doesn't mean anything and just having no kids wouldn't even significantly reduce the population for decades.

If you wanted population reduction to happen now, you'd have to push a significant amount of people to choose to die and even then you'd still need to come up with solutions so those that remain could have a decent quality of life using fewer resources, in technology, lifestyle, social systems, and more.