DADvocate

For the past 30 years or so, I've thought my having kids, loving them, caring for them, providing for them and trying to raise them to be happy, healthy, normal adults was a sign of my normalcy and good mental health. Apparently not according to this story linked to by Instapundit.

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35.

"Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."

While most parents view their children as the ultimate miracle of nature, Toni seems to see them as a sinister threat to the future.

I must admit, I've had thoughts concerning maintaining the genetic line. My two sons are the only genetically related male grandchildren of my father to carry on the family name. My two daughters make up half of the female grandchildren. Only seven grandchildren, one adopted, from 6 children. That's less than the maintenance replacement rate of about 2.1 per couple, especially when you include spouses.

But, the new standard is no children. "I realised then that a baby would pollute the planet - and that never having a child was the most environmentally friendly thing I could do."

I always thought that people driving SUVs and consuming much more than needed were the environmentally unfriendly ones. Like all the people flying private jets to Bali.

Most of my adult life, I've been an environmentalist out of necessity. I've driven smaller cars that get good gas mileage because paying for lots of gas would be hard on my wallet. I've kept heating bills down to save money more so than lower greenhouse gases. In the outdoors, I practice leave no trace that the Boy Scouts teach. But, even this is selfish as I want to be able to return to an equally pristine spot year after year.

I do recycle voluntarily with little advantage, if any, to myself.

However, in my short-sighted selfishness, I missed the boat completely and reproduced. Never mind that my children are brilliant, loving, capable people who will likely contribute more than they take from the world. They are walking, talking, eating, defecating environmental disasters!

Rand Simburg has some thoughts about this.

Well, if you hate humans so much, you know where to start, and it's entirely within your own power to end your own existence. Who would possibly miss you?

Classical Values makes some good points concerning the "religious fervor" of people such at this.

My suspicion is that sterilization would further encourage the messianic activism which possess these people. Not only because it derives from misplaced spirituality, but because they don't have to devote time, energy, or money to raising children.

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Hey kids, announcing you've had yourself sterilized is almost as cool as announcing you're a vegan, and while it might not be quite the same as "coming out," the benefits are similar.

And even if you haven't actually had your tubes done yet, talking about it certainly ought to be a good Thanksgiving dinner conversation starter.

As for myself, I just don't know what to do. Four kids to further pollute the Earth. I could plant some trees or purchase carbon offsets. Maybe I can fly to Bali and relax in the sun figure out what to do about global warming climate change.

Or maybe, I can just go hunting. If I kill enough deer, it should offset the environmental impact my children will have on the world. Deer cause over 1.5 million auto accidents in the U.S. per year. (Of course, if those pesky humans weren't driving cars around, this wouldn't happen.) But what the heck. I'm a selfish cur anyway, hunting and fishing it is.