A whole lot of people firmly believe that the sole reason that us humans are on this earth is to reproduce and create new life. But what would you say if I told you that having children is slowly killing the planet we live on?
The main causes of climate change are overpopulation and consumption – that has been cleared up for us by researchers. As the global population increases by a huge 75 million every year, The Guardian reports that by 2050, our planet will be home to over 9 billion people.
Overpopulation is a threat for a number of reasons, and I don’t just mean because it makes our morning commute to work on the tube that much more crammed. Having more kids means having to use more of our already diminishing supply of natural resources – forests and greenery that are vital to the survival of our environment are being cut down to build new homes, new offices. Every time we turn on a light, go for a drive or throw our finished cigarettes on the floor, we are slowly but surely killing our planet.
The World Health Organization estimate that between 2030 and 2050, at least 250,000 people will die every year due to climate-related illness, and many more scientists are convinced that we have royally fucked up our planet past the point of return. We’ve already been warned if we don’t attempt to turn it around now, the global temperature will rise by 4 degrees celcius. This is thought to be uninhabitable for human life, and have devastating effects on the planet.
It may be a controversial topic, but environmentalists are asking the question - is it really ethical to bring a child into a world which might not have long left?
The world doesn’t need us to exist. If humans were to disappear from the earth, it would gradually repair itself and after 10,000 years, there would be no trace of us living here in the first place.But we do need the earth to exist, so it’s worth taking care of it.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.