Most people feel entitled that their bloodline must continue. They see children as giving meaning, purpose, or change to their lives. Traditions, religious beliefs, fear, and not thinking long term leads people to have children without thinking through the consequences. The same people struggle with basic emotional and mental challenges and are not capable of caring for themselves even, yet choose to become parents hoping it will fill something missing inside them.

Here are the main reasons we have to slow down. 100 years ago, the world’s population was about 1.5 billion. today, it is 8.5 billion.

We have become an enormous and destructive force on the planet, putting increasing pressure on the ecosystems that our own survival depends on. Hundreds of thousands of species have gone extinct, including undocumented insects, invertebrates, and poorly studied organisms. 

Every year, around 10 million hectares of forest are destroyed, while 8–11 million tons of plastic enter the oceans. Since the industrial age, humans have released roughly 2.4 trillion tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Around 50% of the world’s coral reefs have already been damaged or lost, and approximately 85% of wetlands have disappeared since the 1700s. 

Most major rivers around the world are heavily polluted by human activity, and the Amazon rainforest has already lost an estimated 17–20% of its original area. Pollution has also created 500+ major dead zones in the oceans, areas where marine life struggles to survive.

Estimated tragedies caused by people since the 20th century (1900–today) are enormous.

 In the 20th century alone, an estimated 350 million people died from war, homicide, political violence, and terrorism. Wars are estimated to have caused around 150–200 million deaths, political mass killings around 50–100 million, homicides and murders around 40–60 million, and terrorism an estimated 200,000–500,000 deaths.

Beyond historical events, violence and exploitation continue today. Globally, around 450,000–500,000 people are murdered every year, and an estimated 50 million people are currently living in conditions of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Human impact on animals and biodiversity has reached an enormous scale. 

Every year, an estimated 80–100 billion land animals are killed through factory farming, along with approximately 1–3 trillion fish. Around 1 million species are currently threatened with extinction, while wildlife populations have declined by an average of 69% since 1970. Scientists estimate that the current extinction rate caused by human activity is around 100–1,000× faster than the natural background rate.

Today, about 96% of all mammal biomass on Earth is made up of humans and livestock, leaving only ~4% as wild mammals. Around 70% of birds on Earth are poultry rather than wild birds. 

Each year, more than 100 million animals are used in laboratory experiments, and approximately 90% of global fish stocks are considered fully exploited or depleted due to overfishing. Since civilization began, humans have likely killed trillions upon trillions of animals, and human activity is estimated to have contributed to the extinction of tens of thousands to possibly hundreds of thousands of species throughout history.