15 hours ago, Kraken said:Because it's heavy industry/powerplants that tend to do the most polluting. Not having a kid seems really minor in comparison to that.
To be fair, said heavy industry and power plants only account for that pollution because they meet a demand from consumers, so if enough people were to stop reproducing that would in theory bring down emissions in the long run, were it not for the fact that any benefits resulting from this decision would in all likelyhood not really go into effect until long after the methane deposits in the Arctic are released into the atmosphere and catastrophic climate change events become inevitable.
Generally speaking though, if I may stray from the topic at hand a bit, it bothers me how disdainful some activists are towards changing one's individual behaviour/consumption patterns when the entire way we've structured our economy and essentially our entire way of life are inherently unsustainable. In my view, to transition towards an emission-neutral society on a global scale before the climate crisis assumes its most ruinous form would require a string of miracles at this point but it will be impossible to achieve without limiting people's access to fuel, meat, etc. and if one currently has the financial means to start accustoming oneself to that future then I see no reason not to do so.