re the economic argument, it's true that people need to continue to have kids to keep the human race going. Individuals may or may not consider that to be a good thing <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
However. For me the main issue is that our economies are all based around growth and that growth is not sustainable without a continually growing population. The earth is bursting at the seams as it is and yet we are still exhorted to do some breeding in order to head off the pensions crisis or whatever at the pass, and there's always that age-old BS about the young being needed to take care of the old. Presumably, only if you pay them to.
Until we come to realise that there are more crucial things in life than having a growing economy, environmental issues will not be taken as seriously as they need to be. I am staggered that there are not more people up in arms about the dangerously high human population levels - so few of us even recognise this as perhaps the most major threat to any sustained existence of life on the planet. But with our egocentric and indeed anthropocentric disregard for what we do in our own backyard, we continue arrogantly breeding away and concerning ourselves with the population levels of many other species while pointedly ignoring those of our own. In my view this widespread anthropocentrism is one of the biggest threats of all.
For these reasons i refuse to accept anyone calling me selfish for choosing to be CF. The really selfish ones are those that pop out half a dozen or more kids and see no reason to moderate their excesses.
