How many kids are too many?

[mike_c]

66. one is too many....

The public portion of the debate about having children usually centers on the freedom of individuals to choose how many children they'll have based on criteria that are immediate for them-- social norms in their circumstances, individual reproductive instinct, income and living conditions, etc.

Too often though, we don't even mention the social burden that human population pressure places on the Earth, and the consequences of that for future generations as well as ourselves. There are simply too many people for the planet to support sustainably. The result is increasing famine, poverty, disease, and conflict as we deplete resources further and further, fight over them, control them, and destroy them in the name of short term profits.

Mass suicide isn't a realistic means of reducing population, although it's close cousins-- genocide, murder, and famine-- are the traditional approaches to restoring balance when human populations outstrip their resource base, so rational people need to step back and reconsider their notions about universal freedom to breed. Garrett Hardin was right, I think, just 50 years too soon. It's a shame that we had that warning 40 years ago and have largely ignored it, taking us 40 years further down the road to human ruin.

We need a few generations in which most people do not breed, and those who do have only one child.