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Laetitian's avatar

"Can we keep not having babies?"

Huh? Wouldn't that be the most direct solution to the climate change issue? And lots of others with it?

I'm no anti-natalist, but the only way I can make sense of that question is if I recognise within it a more difficult, unaddressed, more politically charged question of: "Can the developed world handle the comparative growth of the undeveloped world, without making an effort to keep up?"

My answer would be: No, but there are lots of other things that also won't work out with the modern world if we don't change how society operates, and the West producing more babies is nowhere near the most direct fixes. Though more care about improving the quality of children's' upbringing would definitely be a vital step in that direction - which might be indirectly necessitated by having more children to have to be responsible for as a Western society.

But yeah. *Too slow* procreation would definitely not be among my top two concerns of things to worry about. I'd start with job or wealth distribution, or teaching people that it's possible to retrain one's habits, or how to manage their lives without depending on external validation.

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Ian's avatar

This is great, thanks for your genuine devices!

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