Earth Now Has 8 Billion Humans. This Man Wishes There Were None. – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
He has an extreme proposal for “voluntary human extinction”. With the fertility rate collapse we are headed in that direction eventually, but it is unclear if he knows that. He says he is hopeful “some humans do not exist” because of his advocacy.
Like many activists, he advocates for solutions that work for him – he has never been married nor has any children.
Like many activists, he proposes a solution that leads to the loss of future lives and their innovations, and which is unlikely to be globally supported nor sustainable.
A comment to the story says we must mandate, globally, the end of having children. That proposal will certainly go over well.
But this part is true:
One of the most effective ways to combat global warming, say both climate activists and those concerned about overpopulation, is to expand access to education for girls around the world, in addition to birth control and family planning
Several sources (Empty Planet, SuperAbundance, others) note that as girls’ education increases, there is a drop in births – this is the key to reducing population growth. Today, 75% of the world’s population lives in countries with a negative growth rate (shrinking) – 25% live in countries with expanding populations, sometimes with fertility rates in the 4-5 range. As education and economic opportunities increase in those latter countries, their fertility rates will rapidly drop, as they have done in other countries. Some (Empty Planet demographers) think this transition may occur sooner than most forecast – leading to peak population in the 2040s, not 2080 as other’s project.
