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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 14 2019, @03:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the are-you-"kid"ding? dept.

Anti-natalists: The people who want you to stop having babies

They believe humans shouldn't have children. Who are the anti-natalists - and how far are they willing to push their ideas?

"Wouldn't it just be better to blow a hole in the side of the earth and just have done with everything?" Thomas, 29, lives in the east of England, and although his idea of blowing up the world is something of a thought experiment, he is certain about one thing - humans should not have babies, and our species should gradually go extinct.

It's a philosophy called anti-natalism. While the idea dates back to ancient Greece, it has recently been given a huge boost by social media. On Facebook and Reddit, there are dozens of anti-natalist groups, some with thousands of members. On Reddit, r/antinatalism has nearly 35,000 members, while just one of the dozens of Facebook groups with an anti-natalist theme has more than 6,000.

They are scattered around the world and have a variety of reasons for their beliefs. Among them are concerns about genetic inheritance, not wanting children to suffer, the concept of consent, and worries about overpopulation and the environment. But they are united in their desire to stop human procreation. And although they are a fringe movement, some of their views, particularly on the state of the earth, are increasingly creeping into mainstream discussion. While not an anti-natalist, the Duke of Sussex recently said he and his wife were planning to have a maximum of two children, because of environmental concerns.


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  • (Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Wednesday August 14 2019, @04:18AM (4 children)

    by Coward, Anonymous (7017) on Wednesday August 14 2019, @04:18AM (#879978) Journal

    I hope you realize that carbon footprint is a recent metric whose importance has not withstood the test of time. Humans are known to self-flaggelate. This anti-natalism is in the same mold.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 14 2019, @07:34AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 14 2019, @07:34AM (#880025)

    Lead pipes too.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 14 2019, @09:03AM (2 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday August 14 2019, @09:03AM (#880036) Homepage
      Nope, there was a concrete and direct mechanism for harm to humans that was known about long before the lead pipes were done away with.
      There's no concrete and direct mechanism for harm to humans caused by increased carbon dioxide.

      If you're going to pull some fairy story like the death of the corals that are a vital habitat for the microorganisms that feed the small fish that feed the larger fish that we humans eat, then I'll just say "too late, and too indirect, we've been catastrophically over-fishing the fish that humans eat for decades, that's why we won't have as much fish to eat in the future, nothing to to do with the flapping of environmentalists wings over corals on the other side of the globe".
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      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday August 14 2019, @12:19PM (1 child)

        by Bot (3902) on Wednesday August 14 2019, @12:19PM (#880119) Journal

        Apparently the coral reef problem has been linked to excessive dumping of chemical agriculture products. So we should all return to pre industrial agriculture. That would solve either overpopulation or job market problems. Maybe both.

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        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday August 14 2019, @06:25PM

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 14 2019, @06:25PM (#880423) Journal

          The problem exists, but the proposed solution is poor.

          Also, agricultural waste is only one of the stressors on coral. Temperature is an even more important one. Another is the carbon dioxide content of the water. Acid water makes is more difficult for coral to grow their support skeleton. (This doesn't only affect corals, of course. it affects most shellfish and all bony fish [i.e. teleosts], like salmon, cod, tuna, etc. It doesn't affect sharks, rays, jellyfish, etc, though the pH change may also affect them in some other way.)

          Oversimplification of this problem is endemic. Please don't contribute to it.

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