A man who advocates the elimination of humans on earth made a plea Tuesday for people to voluntarily cease having children to allow the environment to heal.
On Tuesday's Dr. Phil episode, as reported by Fox News, the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, Les Knight, presented a series of surprising assertions in a discussion of the ethics of reproduction and the argument about overpopulation.
Human Overpopulation Harms The Earth
Dr. Phil asked Les Knight if he believes that all humans should just "live long and die out" and stop procreating. Knight agreed, saying, "Feed 'em don't breed 'em." He said that people who are already existing should not be taken care of.
Les Knight expounded his assertion, saying he is proposing "for everyone to think before they procreate."
He then stated his ideology's ideal conclusion: if human extinction happens, "the biosphere-what's left of it-will have a chance to recover."
After that, he said, "reproductive freedom" is the "most essential" need of humans. However, many people simply do not have access to reproductive health services, including contraception. Not only are they not supplied, but the growing population makes it impossible for most families to afford to buy their own.
The number of individuals opting not to start a family continues to rise. In a 2021 study, the Pew Research Center found that almost half of all adults (18-49) said they were unlikely or very unlikely to have children, while nearly three-quarters of all parents said they weren't planning on having any more children, as reported by Yahoo! Entertainment.
Les Knight believes overpopulation is a major cause of the climate catastrophe, but that theory is risky. Countries with large populations but low GDPs, like India, produce less of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming than they consume.
The United States and other wealthy nations with relatively tiny populations produce a disproportionate share of the pollution contributing to global warming.
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Humans Consume Most Resources
According to John Wilmoth, director of the United Nations population division, the problem that is spiraling out of control is consumption, and focusing on population limitation as a potential climate fix distracts from the urgent need for everyone to abandon fossil fuels and more efficiently use resources.
He added that what must be done is to alter the financial incentives that allow polluters to reap financial benefits at the expense of the environment, per The New York Times. Forcible sterilizations and other procedures based on the assumption that population control is necessary to have proved harsh or have been tied to racist ideologies like eugenics, Wilmoth noted.
While longer life expectancy and improved health for humans are undoubtedly positive developments, Stephanie Feldstein, director of population and sustainability at the Center for Biological Diversity, argues that they have come at the expense of the planet's other species.
Because of the doubling of humans in the previous 50 years, animal numbers have dropped by almost 70%. While cutting reproduction rates today won't impact emissions in the medium run, she warned population growth will put a strain on diminishing natural resources and the delicate network of animals, birds, and plants that rely on them.
Feldstein said that biodiversity loss could be just as devastating" since it disrupts vital ecosystems. Already, human activity consumes almost twice as much material as the planet can renew in a given year.
