On the other side of the Italian catholic church and government thinking their declining population is a crisis, are the members of a group that think a declining population is just what we need..in fact, they think the best thing for humans to do is to stop reproducing all together right now to allow the earth’s biosphere to return to good health.
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) might have radical ideas,
On May 25th Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, addressed fellow Italian bishops at the 61st plenary assembly and called Italy’s declining birthrate “slow demographic suicide.” “Over 50% of families today are without children,” and according to the article on LifeSite news.com,25% have only one child, 20% have two, and 5% have three or more.
A recent study by the Milan-based International Center for Family Studies indicates Italy’s fertility rate is 1.31 children born per woman. And although there are high levels of foreign immigration, the report indicates only .047 decrease in population in 2009.
Unlike most studies in the U.S. the study looked at the choice factor when it comes to being childless. It found that …
On a previous post I wrote about Lisa Hymas, senior editor at grist, who wrote about the value of being childfree from an environmental perspective. She also did a great interview on MSNBC this week:
In part she talks about what childfree have been talking about for while now – that the choice not to have children is not talked about enough (although it is talked about much more these days than in the past), and when it is, the childfree sentiment is At Last, someone wants to hear from us!
She also makes the point that…
