The human overpopulation of the planet is destroying other species and the environmental conditions necessary to support Earth's species at an astonishing rate. The most significant things any human animal can do to reduce their negative impact on the ecosystem is to not reproduce and to live vegan.
When scientists talk about overpopulation, they are usually referring to a population exceeding its biological carrying capacity which is defined as "the maximum number of animals that a specific habitat or area can support without causing deterioration or degradation of that habitat.”
What is important to remember is that every additional human animal on the planet means two things for our fellow Earthlings:
A. Less space and food (natural habitat) for other animals.
B. More animals killed for food by humans.
The direction of the number of human animals needs (for the sake of the planet, for our fellow Earthlings and for ourselves) to be decreasing, not increasing. We could make the number decrease by killing (and we are amazingly good at that) or by death from disease or starvation or whatever....or we could make the number decrease by not adding to it and letting death due to age begin to bring the number down. Obviously the least violent and painful way to make our numbers drop is to quit having so many children.
So...thanks is due to those courageous and heroic human females (inadvertently or not) who have had the generosity and vision to help all living beings by being UnMothers. Your planet thanks you, your fellow Earthlings thank you...especially all mothers who aren't human animals, and I thank you. You are appreciated and valued and treasured.
Your not having children means you voted to have more tigers living in the wild instead of another McDonalds hamburger joint.
You voted to preserve, not to destroy. You voted for the future, not for the now. This is caring, this is concern, this is love...this is true "mothering". Be impressed with yourselves, you should be...we all should be. Thank you!!!
So remember this...when you encounter a human animal who lives vegan you are encountering someone living in a manner that tries to reduce the pain and misery of all Earthlings...when you encounter a human animal who lives vegan and who has opted to remain childless....well...just wow.
This post is somewhat of a repeat of an earlier honor to UnMothers...in the meantime I've been lucky enough to meet several women who opted to live the role of an UnMother and they enlightened me about something I'd not thought of before. Apparently women who don't become mothers tend to get lots of comments and nudges about this. "When are you going to have a child?" is probably one of the least offensive ones. I admit to being rather stunned...and truthfully...rather angered when I heard this.
And yet...such obtuseness is way too often characteristic of our times. Where, more often than not, the default or expected position or behavior is a destructive and unconsidered one and when thoughtfulness or astuteness or kindness or concern for anything or anyone more than ones own self is met with skepticism or derision or rejection. Anyone asking "when are you going to have a child" may be exposing their own small-minded ignorance and absence of concern for Mother Earth and all her Earthlings.
If mothering is about caring then vegan UnMothers exhibit care most of all.
5 comments:
As a vegan UnMother (since we're not counting fur babies here!), my response to your thoughtful 9as always) essay of appreciation is - "My pleasure!" :-) I'm the only child of an only child of an abandoned infant, so the UnMaternal instinct is strong in this one! (Unless, of course, we're counting fur babies). :-)
Funny, isn't it, that not wanting to have a child (for whatever reason) is considered to be a sign of selfishness, whereas not contributing to human overpopulation is probably one of the most selfless things one can do right now.
Where I work, a lot of the residents and staff members belong to churches that don't believe in contraception. As a result, a number of staff my own age have 8-10 kids. I'm not kidding. Makes me cringe every time I think about it.
I can attest as an UnMother that this choice doesn't come without social scorn. It really isn't easy to go against the cultural norms that dictate the role women have been made to fit into. In my child-bearing years I was called everything from selfish to "disappointing". (sigh)... But I don't have regrets - Especially in my later years becoming more aware of the consequences of bringing more carbon beings on to an already crowded planet.
On the point of carrying capacity and where our heavy-hot-Earth is heading I see the animal industries are scurrying to "design" more heat-resistant livestock breeds to meet the future "demand" for meat. How foolish they are in expending so much to re-create featherless chickens and drought-resistant cows!
Less people and more plants is the answer... Let us "UnMother" the birds, cows and pigs too please! :/
and thank you in return... how refreshing to be appreciated and acknowledged for that decision...
Thank you for commenting Laloofah, HGV, Bea and proud woman.
Y'all are my heroes!!! I hope your day was good.
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