Anti-natalists never think beyond stage one.
And that’s my kind interpretation of their beliefs. A more cynical man may think they are not merely wrong, but vicious. Anti-natalist literature is full of feeble thinking, as shown in a recent article published by NBC. The author of the thing argues that wealthy Westerners ought to limit their family size for the good of the environment. He writes:
“Although culturally controversial, the scientific half of this position is fairly well-established. Several years ago, scientists showed that having a child, especially for the world’s wealthy, is one of the worst things you can do for the environment. That data was recycled this past summer in a paper showing that none of the activities most likely to reduce individuals’ carbon footprints are widely discussed.”*
I want to pause for a moment here, and think. My audience here—Riya the Vikinga, Clete the ambivalent Northerner, the vast majority of people in the blog—are wealthy women and men for the purpose of his assumptions. He thinks she, him, we all, ought to limit our family size for the good of Gaia.
But he’s not thinking this through, and I suspect he’s not doing much thinking.
Suppose a relatively wealthy man—say, our beloved Elf—decides not to have children for the good of Gaia. The birth rate in the United States would go down, imperceptibly so in the statistics, but still truly so. None of those gruesome wealthy white babies would be born. Success! Gaia would rejoice, right?
Not so fast. Anti-natalists fail to think beyond stage one. Wealthy Western parents failing to have children won’t result into an environmental utopia. Someone else will have children. And they’ll try to emigrate to anti-natalist societies, which I won’t even hold against them—the stupid people promoting sad Western anti-natalism are responsible for it.
I’m a man in my early 40’s, unlikely to father anyone, but I’d still will tell you this: the future will belong to the fecund. Before anything else, future human beings need to exist. This is plain truth, as far as I can discern it.
*Link to that abomination:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/science-proves-kids-are-bad-earth-morality-suggests-we-stop-ncna820781
