Q. When does 1+1 not equal 2?
A. When you are talking about reproduction.
A couple have two children. Are they just producing their own replacements? Not unless they die straight afterwards. There are now four people alive and consuming, whereas there were just two previously. Don’t think that babies are not consumers, just look at the amount of stuff someone carries around with them if they have a baby.
These children then have their own two kids each, so now there are eight people on the planet, instead of the original two. They then may well become great grandparents before they die, so perhaps sixteen people will now exist, all alive at the same time. It is not actually that simple, as the children and grandchildren will bring their partners into it, and people will still die, but it remains that there will be a lot more people alive all at the same time when we choose to have children.
This is why the world population has got out of hand. We have also been living longer, due to various factors. Improved maternity and neonatal care, fewer babies and fewer women dying in childbirth. Medical and surgical treatments have improved. There’s better sanitation, clean water and improved housing. There is a welfare state in many countries.
Consequently, we now see more generations alive at the same time. Also, not everyone restricts their offspring to just two. This is why it is essential to stop having children now. Those that are here already, are here, so have the same right to survive as anyone else. It is those people who are thinking about having, or planning to have a baby, that really need to look at what it would mean. One more consumer on the planet. One more added to a population that has already outstretched what the planet can support. Bringing another being into existence is so selfish, what kind of world are they going to face? What sort of life are they going to have? What suffering will they have to endure? Will they end up wishing they had never been born?
This post was sent to us by a follower who felt the topic of living childfree needed another voice.
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