Posted by: Sethimus
but by not having kids i can consume the amount another person‘s kids would consume if i would get the chance to live longer. that would imply that the child producer must die off early in a socially accepted way of course. if we all live longer and decide to have kids too that would not work, i give you that.
The flaw in your thinking is that "saving the planet" is actually about saving humanity. The planet will bounce back if we all die. It has many times before. The goal is to save the planet from destroying us and many other species due to our arrogance, but we need children to do that or it falls apart like a house of cards when the only people around are old. The only part of the overconsumption problem the wealthy nations are decent at is controlling population growth, so you are committed to the only thing we actually have a handle on. It is up to parents to prepare our future generations to take care of the planet and solve these issues, so to say that breeders are selfish is really just patting yourself on the back for doing nothing to help. You could adopt and raise a environmentally conscious person if that was a real concern of yours, but I suspect your choice to not have kids has nothing to do with the planet.
