Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Anti-Parturient

In a recent debate about the very subject of making babies, an older, conservative person said young people would come to reconsider procreation because he was once young like me and had the same concerns about population. He continued on this rhetorical 'ageist' point, saying he had reconsidered the "joys of parenting" once he grew older. Now in his baby-boomer prime, he says he is satisfied with his decision to procreate. Regardless of that fact the he magnified his ecological impact through the actions and consumer lifestyles of his offspring. Population is the underlying cause of most environmental problems.

Even if your goal is to raise morally-upstanding and civil people, there are other options. It sounds like missionary-work to presume you can mold your offspring into moral human beings, especially when moral is completely relative here. (Not to mention: why create a human being to better the environment, when by virtue of being a human being, he or she would consume and destroy it? Not that I hate human beings, I'm just saying...)

I heard a joke once about bacteria culture in the petri dish who overpopulated and asphyxiated on their own toxins? Well, this joke is a true story in biology labs. Just like the bacteria, we have too much forward momentum, but unlike them (presumably) we know we're putting to much pressure on our petri dish. But even at 6.7 billion strong we show are not showing signs of slowing down.

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