The Unpopular Opinion

Our planet is overpopulated... No one ever argues with me on that statement. If I ask why overpopulation is a problem, someone will usually mention the fact that there are limited resources on the planet and it is becoming harder and harder to provide enough of these resources to allow future generations to live comfortable lives. Others may mention displacement and mass extinction of animals across the globe due to deforestation, expansion of cities and human industrialization. Both are very good points.

But if I ask people how they think we could change it, I hear a lot of odd responses. The number one answer I hear is "we need to recycle more!" I don't know why people think recycling is going to fix the problem. Recycle to your heart's content, it helps animals and may help deforestation drop a fraction of a percent but it does not change the larger problems associated with overpopulation. Neither does funding the protection of forests, creating food programs to use the "expired" food many companies throw away, or providing government assistance to families in need. Everyone wants to tiptoe around the most obvious and most effective solution, controlled breeding. We limit the number of stray animals by surgically controlling their ability to breed, we reduce numbers of mosquitos by genetically controlling their ability to breed and we straight up poison other animals to control their numbers.

This is when I start hearing "It's our rights as humans to have as many kids as we want!", "Humans are animals, the point of life is to reproduce!", "You can't blame humans for their biological urges!".

Actually, I can and I will.

See, humans are intelligent creatures and are not slaves to their biological instincts. We challenge our other instincts every day in many different ways. We jump out of airplanes, we go on restrictive diets, some people literally refuse to drink water! These things are unique to human kind and it's because we have the intelligence to know that our inner instincts are primal and aren't as necessary to survive in today's civilization. We have the intelligence and ability, but when it comes to reproduction we are 100% selfish in our decisions. We as individuals refuse to acknowledge, never mind take on, any personal responsibility for the effects of human overpopulation.

The thing that bothers me most is that there are plenty of contraceptives out there that make it very easy to control your own ability to breed but people don't take breeding seriously. "Everyone else does it so I will too", "It's normal to want a family". Yeah, it is normal to want a family and yeah, everyone else is having kids but that isn't a good excuse and it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

I think having children is one of the most selfish things that people feel entitled to. It is selfish on so many levels. First off, there are so many homeless children already in this world and the choice to have your own child rather than adopting means that another kid gets to grow up without a family, like it or not it's true. Second, adding more people to this population thins out resources even more which takes away from those already starving people in third world countries who need nourishment more than you need a baby. Third, no matter how much effort you put into "saving the planet" your kids, and the byproducts of them living their lives, will do twice as much harm to the planet, even if they recycle... And probably most importantly, it isn't fair for future children.

None of us ask to be born, we just draw the short straw when our parents decide they are responsible enough to have a baby. Life is not easy and as great as it can be, it can also be cruel and miserable. I don't care if you are a good parent or a terrible one. I have seen some seriously scummy individuals crawl out of "perfectly good" homes and I have met some amazing people who learned from their terrible upbringing and became decent human beings. Go ahead and say it "My children are glad to be alive", "My children care about this planet", "My children deserve to experience life", "My children are good people". Due to literally everybody's excessive breeding your children are being brought into a world that is just going to become more and more difficult and uncomfortable to survive in and they are just going to make it worse for their future children.

"You don't know that, things may turn around!", "Eventually humans will move to a different planet and all will be okay". No, it's not going to turn around because not enough people are putting effort into fixing the problem, which is reproduction. Humans are parasites who value themselves more than anything else in the universe, we will take and take and take without giving anything substantial in return. So even if there becomes a magical way for us to travel to a new planet, the same problems will occur unless some form of restrictions on reproduction are put in place.

I am not saying that we shouldn't reproduce, that would be a ridiculous request to ask of any life form. I am saying that, for the better of humankind, we should make a better effort to reproduce a lot less. China wasn't very wrong in believing that each family should be limited to two children, they were just wrong in the way they handled citizens who did not comply with this restriction. Ultimately their restrictions did make a difference in the quality of life for a majority of their country. Having less people to take care of leads to having more resources for everybody, you can't argue that point. 10 sheep are going to have a lot more food and live much happier lives on a single acre of land than 40 sheep confined in the same amount of space.

Unfortunately we care more about our own personal wants than we do about the well being of anyone or anything else. I don't think this will ever change because a vast majority of the population simply doesn't want it to. We are about "living our best lives" and doing what we enjoy in the time that we are given. We don't care about Joe, Suzie, Clair or Robbie stuck in the orphanage, at least, not as much as we care about having a baby who looks like us. We don't care about Mica, Uli or Addy who are laying in the dirt, starving in a third world country. We want our children to have mommies’ eyes and daddies' nose. As terrible as it all sounds, it is the truth for the masses.

I don't hate people who have kids and I am not going to look down on anyone for choosing the family life. As much as I personally believe that population control should be established and enforced for the betterment of future generations, human kind will never allow it and I have learned to just accept that.

I own the fact that I really don't care about people outside of my circle. Yup, I am focusing on myself too, "living my best life" as some may say. My life is dedicated to making sure myself and my loved ones are happy, just like most people. You can't fix the world and it's going to cause you nothing but pain if you try. What we can do individually is take more responsibility for our actions and how they effect the people and world around us.

Imagine if every family adopted a child instead of having a third child of their own. Seriously give it a thought! I believe the world would be a much better place for everyone who calls it home. We would have less poverty and more resources to care for those who need it. You won't see me bringing another mouth to feed into this world, when I am ready to take on the responsibility of another human life I will be adopting someone in need.