It seems it's you that has changed the topic of our conversation. I said that having children is not a selfish act. Now you say it's not population growth, but lifestyle that is the issue. Great, but that has nothing to do with having children.
The first world is going to be in an actual crisis (not a theoretical future one) if we don't increase the reproduction rate. Look at what is happening in Japan with massive labor shortages, too many elderly to take care of, broken economy...
> The central challenge for the future of people and the planet is how to raise more of us out of poverty—the slum dwellers in Delhi, the subsistence farmers in Rwanda—while reducing the impact each of us has on the planet.
The central challenge to every individual is to survive and reproduce. People know this at a very intrinsic level. Before you can worry about people halfway across the world, you need to be able to eat, put a roof over your head, have children (if you want them -- most do) and support them.
Humanity is not a centrally planned, intelligently designed organism. It's emergent behavior from individuals following their genetic will to participate in evolution.
The first world is going to be in an actual crisis (not a theoretical future one) if we don't increase the reproduction rate. Look at what is happening in Japan with massive labor shortages, too many elderly to take care of, broken economy...
> The central challenge for the future of people and the planet is how to raise more of us out of poverty—the slum dwellers in Delhi, the subsistence farmers in Rwanda—while reducing the impact each of us has on the planet.
The central challenge to every individual is to survive and reproduce. People know this at a very intrinsic level. Before you can worry about people halfway across the world, you need to be able to eat, put a roof over your head, have children (if you want them -- most do) and support them.
Humanity is not a centrally planned, intelligently designed organism. It's emergent behavior from individuals following their genetic will to participate in evolution.