Here at Ask NYT Climate, we usually dive into specific questions, from the greenest ways to dispose of pet waste to the most eco-friendly workout clothing. But because Tuesday is Earth Day, we’re tackling one of the big questions: What is the single best thing I can do for the planet?
We put this to half a dozen experts who shared their advice on how to be the best planetary citizen possible.
“One of the most effective ways to avoid consumption in the first place, Dr. Rees said, is to have a smaller family.”
Yip, human overpopulation is the biggest cause of anthropogenic climate change (compare it to other causes), and the root cause of it. It’s also the root cause of the anthropocene extinction event and of that becoming a mass extinction event, and of factory farming, and of industrial fishing, and of habitat degradation and destruction, and of unsustainable pollution, …
I got banned from r/Sustainability for saying I was in favor of lowering birthrates. (Cue the accusations of eco-fascism and eugenics, rather than any meaningful discussion.)
For what it’s worth, I don’t believe governments should have the power to dictate our ability to give birth, that’s immediately dystopian. But we need to acknowledge that overshoot is a function of population x per-capita consumption, and we can’t just look at one side of that equation.