# Is suicide the best thing a human can do for the environment? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347 "2012-04-10T04:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/21 "2012-04-10T21:53:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Considering the terms of the argument, the logical answer is every environmentalist should go on a shooting spree first and then commit suicide I have a feeling that the suicide would be unnecessary - somebody’s going to get the environmentalist before he gets everyone else. They do outnumber him a bit. But yeah, this line of thought does sort of call for mass murder. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/22 "2012-04-10T22:33:00Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Should environmentalists commit mass suicide to save the Earth? The earth certainly doesn’t need saving, it’s been going on its merry way for over 4 billions years, and what we do is quite irrelevant to whether or not it continues to orbit around the earth. Now perhaps mankind needs to mitigate its own collective behavior a bit, in order to preserve an environment that mankind can live in. But if mankind fails at that, and wipes itself out, the earth will do just hunky-dory, and most evidence we were ever here will be gone in 20 million years, or even less. New and interesting species will evolve to take the place of those no longer present. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/23 "2012-04-10T23:23:00Z")
> [@florez](#): > > I know of a small island, in Southeast Alaska, where the term “environmentalist” is used as an insult. > This small, mainly inbred community, has pride in their great hatred for environmentalists. > Many of them brag, among themselves, at how good they are at scaring “greenies” away from their island, with threats, insults, and scorn. > > They posted a photo (on Main St.) of community members lined up and mooning the greenpeace ship, as it passed by their island. > As you hear it from these islanders- environmentalists are what is wrong with the nation. Most of the economic ills, and poverty, are the direct result of evil environmentalists in government policy. > They talk of a better time, back when no one could stop their clear cutting of trees, or put a quota on their fishing plunder. > If environmentalists would all just off themselves, it would be to the delight of the people on this island. I know that island, smart folks, who continually get pissed on by lawyers from DC and courts in California. ---
**Author:** ![florez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@florez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/florez)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/24 "2012-04-11T00:36:11Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > I know that island, smart folks, who continually get pissed on by lawyers from DC and courts in California. So, are you saying that you would agree with the island’s “smart folks”, that environmentalists should off themselves? How are they being “pissed on by lawyers from DC, and courts in California”? So far the people from this island benefit from big oil revenues; they pay no state income tax, and they support mining and logging in the state. Also, they support drilling for oil on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWAR). The “smart folks”, by and large, tend to believe that the earth’s resources are endless, and they get upset when anyone disagrees with their perception, hence the reason for their hatred of environmentalists. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/25 "2012-04-11T00:47:29Z")
Walking into the soylent green factory would be more sustainable than committing suicide at home. As far as our resource depletion, I don’t really value nature in and of itself. I don’t think we should contribute to animal suffering but as far as resource depletion, meh. The nature of earth is change. Oxygen wasn’t always part of our atmosphere, it took a billion years for that to happen. So if we use up resource XYZ that doesn’t mean we should kill ourselves. Besides we mostly worry about resource depletion because of how it will affect our lifestyle and ability to survive. Suicide would be counterproductive. A much better solution would be for all the people who are thinking thoughts like ‘mass suicide would solve overpopulation’ to instead get together and support massive subsidies for R&D and mass production for sustainable living. We could live on a much smaller % of our natural resources with a few changes. We’d have to become vegans who live in multi-generational houses and use public transit. But it is possible. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/26 "2012-04-11T03:56:05Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > We’d have to become vegans who live in multi-generational houses and use public transit. But it is possible. Heh, given THAT option, I daresay most would choose suicide. ---
**Author:** ![MrBlahBIahBIah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@MrBlahBIahBIah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrBlahBIahBIah)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/27 "2012-04-20T23:13:16Z")
That is the impression that I get. I say that because if it’s true that environmentalist truly care about the planet and truly believed that humans are what’s wrong with the environment, like they say they do, they would commit suicide. :rolleyes:If they were extremely militant/psycho about it, they would commit mass murder than commit suicide.:smack: I say this post is a joke that no one understood because a so called environmentalist came out a couple of weeks ago that made the very statement that we need to off the current population in order to protect the planet.:eek: That environmentalist, i assume, is Colorado state university professor Philip Cafaro. He wrote the following: “Ending human population growth is almost certainly a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for preventing catastrophic global climate change. Indeed, significantly _ **reducing current human numbers** _ may be necessary in order to do so.” Last time I checked, there was only 2 ways to reduce the current population: murder and suicide. :(So yes now we have environmentalist proposing mass murder, but unfortunately not suicide. Por Qua?😕 Perhaps some environmentalist believe other people are the problem and not themselves.:mad: I think its also interesting that a lot of people quote Africa, Latin America and Asia as “the overpopulation problem”, when Africans and L.Americans produce less CO2 emission than then the US or Europe. China, Russia and India produce the same or less than the US. But both China and India have about 3 times as many people as the US each. Also, the US is the greatest consumer of any resources. So how do they figure that overpopulation is the problem and not the United States? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/28 "2012-04-21T05:01:50Z")
It wasn’t a joke, just a thought experiment. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/29 "2012-04-21T05:41:10Z")
> [@MrBlahBIahBIah](#): > > Last time I checked, there was only 2 ways to reduce the current population: murder and suicide. ☹ There is a third way. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/30 "2012-04-21T08:40:29Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > There is a third way. :eek: Another way is natural attrition through birth control. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/31 "2012-04-21T11:52:08Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Another way is natural attrition through birth control. I was thinking that guns with bullets are so 20th century. What about something that disrupted brain waves? > [@begbert2](#): > > But yeah, this line of thought does sort of call for mass murder. And this line of thought ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347/32 "2012-04-22T13:50:58Z")
Hmm I was thinking whether not having children was the best you could do for Earth. I don’t think it can sustainably support 6 billion people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-suicide-the-best-thing-a-human-can-do-for-the-environment/618347.md?page=1)