‘Have More Kids. It’s Good For the Planet’
'The real problem we face is sustaining population. The replacement fertility rate is 2.1, and in certain places where they fail to meet this threshold -- parts of Europe and Japan, for example -- they've suffered economic and cultural stagnation. Here in the United States we have, for a variety of reasons, long struggled with this problem, as the Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Last has argued. The success of developing nations also portends a similar slow-down. Here's a provocative thought: Maybe it's the best time in history to have children.'
What can we do? Well, Rieder says, “Here’s a provocative thought: Maybe we should protect our kids by not having them.”
The idea that we should have fewer children to save the planet hasn’t been provocative in about 50 years. It would take these students five minutes of Googling to understand that doomsayers have been ignoring human nature and ingenuity since the 18th century, at least.
They might read about Paul Ehrlich and our “science czar” John Holdren, who co-authored a 1977 book suggesting mass sterilizations and forced abortions to save the world. (We’re decades past the expiration date.); or about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who not long said that she always assumed Roe v. Wade was “about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” Did she mean poor people? Did she mean people who recklessly use air conditioners? It’s still a mystery.
