A person born in the developed world can enjoy their lifestyle only if there are no more than 2 billion or 3 billion people on the planet – but there are now more than 8 billion, says this researcher.
I am a PhD candidate at Monash Bioethics Centre, and I research the ethics of procreation in a time of climate change. I’ve found there’s no simple “yes” or “no” answer to whether we should produce more children when Earth is in such dire straits.
But this definition is open to interpretation. Overpopulation is not just about numbers, but also values. If people in affluent countries value their lifestyles - and the opportunity for others to have the same lifestyle - then the world is overpopulated.I live in inner-city Melbourne. When I calculate my ecological footprint, it’s confronting to discover we would need about four Earths for everyone to live like me.
Third, having fewer children helps solve the injustices caused by climate damage. If global fertility rates dropped by only 0.5 births per woman, about 5.1 billion tonnes of carbon would be saved each year by the end of the century. This would contribute to between 16 per cent and 29 per cent of the emissions savings needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.
As ethicists have recently pointed out, if there is any duty to reduce our per capita emissions, there is a duty to limit the number of children we have.I should acknowledge here that I don’t have the lived experience of being a woman or person who can carry a child, nor do I have children yet. And the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights recognises that every man and woman has the right to found a family.
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