Potential parents opt to put the planet before procreation

Earth's crowded enough, some say

“Most people would rather focus on the symptoms — pollution, sprawl, species loss,” says Albert Kaufman, founder of the Portland chapter of Population Connection. “If we don’t bring the number of people down, these are just stop-gap measures.”
. . .
Seeing population at the core of environmental issues, Kaufman decided 10 years ago to forgo having children.

“We can put up all the windmills we want,” he says. “If we can’t stop reproducing at 70 million a year, nothing’s going to prevent us from overwhelming the planet.”
. . .

Within a developed society, it is not uncommon for some people to remain childless, while others have large families. It’s a matter of striking a balance that keeps the population from growing even larger.

“If you look at all of the developed countries where women have opportunity, have choice, have access to contraception, the average birthrate is at replacement level of two children or fewer (per family),” Rex says.

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