Warning! This is a rant.
Just home from a week-long vacation, and before I begin to post the details of the trip, I am going to alienate anyone who believes that mankind is mandated to “be fruitful and multiply” and to “cover the earth”. Enough already!
I’ve been wandering the desert Southwest for almost fifty years. The lure of quiet canyons and star-filled skies has brought me back to Utah and Arizona, in particular, year after year. But now the vast open spaces, once unmarked by humans, are crisscrossed with the tracks of all terrain vehicles and littered with the detritus of a careless breed of humans who feel entitled to dominion over the earth. The places where one could pitch a private camp, away from the noise of others, now are crammed with RVs (recreational vehicles) of all sizes and purpose. Their occupants sit inside their “home away from home” and watch their big screen TV, rarely venturing outside to appreciate the surroundings of unsurpassed natural beauty. When they do venture out, it’s to fire up the quad or motorcycle to go tearing around the countryside as fast as the uneven terrain will allow.
It’s easy to understand why the seemingly infinite wilderness would feel like one’s own personal space to use and abuse as carelessly as a child would his pristine diaper. But the difference is that the desert isn’t washed clean every day. The mark made by a single passage remains a scar, sometimes for decades; and the tracks of thousands of powerful ATVs render a wilderness a barren sand trap.
The earth is a closed system, my dear breeders. Already our teeming masses, yearning to breathe free, are breathing each other’s exhalations and it’s nearly impossible to maintain a 6 square foot distance between ourselves and other humans.
So, I beg you, just stop. Stop having so many children. Also, if it’s not too much trouble, raise the ones you have to be respectful of mother nature and each other. Teach them that mechanization increases their potential for destruction of the natural environment exponentially while diminishing their ability to appreciate it commensurately. Trust me on this: traveling under one’s own power reveals priceless secrets about one’s environment and about one’s self.
judyrutrider 
Well said!
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I agree for a part, Judy: I was a teacher and inspector od Science of nature and life . I posted in 1974 a story about this topic
We got six children Probably it is not enough since many people come from other countries of Europe or from Africa to make run French, german , British industry . And our countries would become quickly a country of old peope attracting predator countries .( France has been crushed by WWI and WW2 in 30 years : 1914-1944)
All of our chidren got an education leading to the respect of nature
Every medal has its reverse.
Love ❤
Michel
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My plea for family planning is directed towards people of ALL races and religions. A human’s rapacious consumption is limited only by his ability to consume. If everyone tries to out-reproduce the other tribe, the earth and all of its inhabitants pay the price of over-population. Sadly, it looks like educated people, while being the most prodigious consumers, are limiting the size of their families, while the uneducated strive for more children AND a more unsustainable life style. You and I have lived in the best of times for mankind (despite the horrible wars) but I fear life won’t be as good for your grandchildren as they will compete for more limited resources. And, being taught respect for nature, they will be more tortured by the heedless hoards who don’t treasure her gifts.
From my own observations of Europe twenty years ago, it seems like Americans are far more wasteful than the people of Western Europe are. If we Americans could learn to emulate the survivors of WW2, this country would be a better place for a longer time. I live in a “It’s all about me” society where consumption is considered a virtue.
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This is quite true Judith. This consumer society is killing us: nature, spirituality, family …. In spite of all this let us keep the hope of a recovery . ❤
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I know what you are saying is true. We have zero growth (we simply replaced ourselves and they have not reproduced). When geocaching we practice CITO (cache in/trash out). So we always carry trash bags with us. If there isn’t a road, we walk. And you are so right about finding amazing treasures of nature if we just look! I’m all for keeping the ATVs and motorcycles out of the wilderness areas – they are a menace to life! That is they are harmful and dangerous to plants, animals, people, and even the air and the soil! My sons were scouts and have a good appreciation for nature and learned to “leave no trace”!
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Hope your vacation was fun (despite whatever triggered the rant)!
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When I recover from today’s bike ride, I intend to begin transcribing my journal. Reliving the trip as I tell it is almost as much fun as the planning.
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LOL! I got super annoyed by everyone getting within 6 feet of me at grocery stores yesterday but really you are right: it’s nearly impossible sometimes to maintain the distance. I actually never found it a priority to have children for this reason: so much overpopulation and so many homeless as it is! I hope we will learn to repect the earth as a species, but failing that, life will move on without us!
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It’s interesting to me, how many of us never felt the need for procreation despite society’s expectation of us to do do so. Like you, I was confident that others would fill the void my barrenness left in the world. That said, I’m eternally grateful to my sister for the three nieces she provided me! I love your, “…but failing that, life will move on without us!” Amen to that.
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