Written by : VHEMT website
VHEMT (pronounced vehement) is a movement not an organization. It's a movement advanced by people who care about life on planet Earth. We're not just a bunch of misanthropes and anti-social, Malthusian misfits, taking morbid delight whenever disaster strikes humans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Voluntary human extinction is the humanitarian alternative to human disasters.
We don't carry on about how the human race has shown itself to be a greedy, amoral parasite on the once-healthy face of this planet. That type of negativity offers no solution to the inexorable horrors which human activity is causing.
Rather, The Movement presents an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of Earth's ecology.
As VHEMT Volunteers know, the hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens... us.
Each time another one of us decides to not add another one of us to the burgeoning billions already squatting on this ravaged planet, another ray of hope shines through the gloom.
When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth's biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps pass away, as so many of Nature's "experiments" have done throughout the eons.
O.B.E.S.E.
Owned by Mynci!
Working hard to be a wandering hippie layabout. Ten years down, five to go!
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Even if our chances of succeeding were only one in a hundred, we would have to try. Giving up and allowing humanity to take its course is unconscionable. There is far too much at stake.
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Q: We have children. Can we still join?
Today's children are tomorrow's destiny. Our children have the potential for achieving the awareness needed to reverse civilization's direction and begin restoring Earth's biosphere. Most could use our help in realizing their full potentials
Naturally. You won't be alone. When people gain the VHEMT perspective, they decide to add no more to the existing human family. They don't pressure their children to give them grandchildren and might encourage them to make a responsible choice with their fertility.
There is no reason to feel guilty about the past. Guilt doesn't lead to positive solutions. Being VHEMT has nothing to do with the past. It's the future of life on Earth that Volunteers want to preserve.
Bouncing Baby Pipe!
Written by Mucky
Sorry to rant, but things like this really set me off. I know it makes a good story to love the earth and assume that humans are a blight on it, but nobody gives the Earth nearly enough credit. To be sure, I'm not encouraging climate change, mass extinction, war,or any other things we know to be caused by human activity. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that there is a level of complexity at work on such a huge, mind-boggling scale that none of the people responsible for groups (sorry, "movements") like VHMET take into account. Life is not what we see, life is a hell of a lot more than what we can see! Maybe we assume life is A, B, C, and D, and humans are anti C and anti D, so humans are bad. But life is also E, F, G, H, I, and so on, ad infinitum.
As Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park says, "Life will find a way." Whether we intervene or whether we live in harmony with the Earth, it will go on. It would take a lot more than we are capable of doing to undo the entire world.
Written by Mucky
They say "Many cling to the quaint notion that we are still a part of Nature." Well I hate to tell you, buddy, but we *are* what Evolution spat out. (If you don't believe in evolution, they do, so I'm responding to that mode of thought). Evolution gave us the intelligence and dexterity to do what we have done in the last 10,000 years, right up to the hole in the ozone layer and the expanding deserts.
Written by Mucky
If that was Earth's mistake, as they believe (again, how do they know what's best for life? Does that make dinosaurs a mistake?), then I promise, the Earth will learn to live with it, and eventually get over it, all by itself.
Written by
Thank you for allowing further explanation.
Perhaps your disapproval of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is simply an unfortunate misunderstanding.
The Movement is voluntary. We are promoting reproductive freedom, not "population control".
The Movement is life-affirming and will benefit all life. We are not advocating suicide, nor an increase in human deaths.
The Movement is pro-child. Every existing child deserves a good life.
The Movement is pro-parent. Existing children are in need of good parents.
The Movement is opposed to bad stuff.
Written by
Q: Is voluntary human extinction possible?
Our extinction is not just possible, it's inevitable: billions of species have come and gone already.
But, will enough of us reach the level of awareness needed to voluntarily reverse our present course toward involuntary extinction?
We can only hope, and try to bring it about.
The alternative doesn't look fun.
Success will be humanity's crowning achievement.
Bouncing Baby Pipe!
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CARLSON: Yes. What are your politics, generally?
KNIGHT: I'm an anarchist. But you know, the full range of political thought exists within the movement.
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CARLSON: Interesting. And there are children in the movement, too?
KNIGHT: Yes. You know, I think the youngest is about 10. There aren't really very many. But a lot of people who are in the movement think -- have said that they thought of this when they were 6 or 7. It's not a really complicated thing to realize that Earth's biosphere is being disrupted by one species, and that one species is us.
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CARLSON: What do you mean? I mean, there are many species of plant and animal that are thriving.
KNIGHT: We still haven't gotten to them yet. We're working on it though.
CARLSON: But that's literally true. I mean, there are all sorts of, you know, insects and algae.
KNIGHT: You bet.
CARLSON: There are a lot of living things on this Earth, and a lot of them are doing quite well.
KNIGHT: They are, yes, especially the ones that can adapt to our civilizations, like pigeons and rats. But there are many species which have gone extinct, due to our increase. There are so many of us. Wherever we live, not much else lives.
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CARLSON: So what's the point of saving the earth if there would [sic] be people around to enjoy it?
KNIGHT: Well, I know that's a question a lot of people ask. And it's obvious that they're not thinking about all the other species. We are just one of 10 million. Who knows how many? We've only catalogued two million. And to think that we -- the entire planet is just for us is rather human centered.
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CARLSON: I will say, that is the sickest thing I think I've ever heard, but you are one of the cheeriest guests we've ever had. I don't know how to-how the two fit together, but I appreciate you coming on. Thanks a lot.
Bouncing Baby Pipe!
Written by :MuckyWritten by
CARLSON: Yes. What are your politics, generally?
KNIGHT: I'm an anarchist. But you know, the full range of political thought exists within the movement.
Well that does it for me. I understand people who say that they are anarchists, and really believe it, adhering to the actual definition of an anarchist (as opposed to the numbskulls who run around tryin' to Stick It To The Man because they hate authority), but it's a pretty unreasonable thing to believe could be effective. Maybe in small groups, but communism is perfect for small groups too. However, in The Real World, things like that just don't work, so considering oneself an anarchist tends to coincide with not actually being able to deal with The Real World.
Written by Mucky
Even if they are actually serious and committed to it, it isn't like they'll put a dent in the population that way. Not even a small one, nope.
Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Written by : VHEMT
When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth's biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps pass away, as so many of Nature's "experiments" have done throughout the eons.
the best smiles are the ones you lead to
Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Written by :jo_rhymes
We throw away so much food every day, and yet millions starve to death.
Written by :PsyRush
Your other points are relevant but this is an Ad hominem attack.
Bouncing Baby Pipe!
Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Bouncing Baby Pipe!
Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Written by :jo_rhymes
It seems quite noble if you think about it!
"the geeks have got you" - Gayle
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Written by :Doc Lightning
If we all die, then all life on Earth has no chance. Alternatively, another species may become sentient. For all we know, it could have happened before.
Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
Written by :jo_rhymes
ooh Atlantis!
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Written by :willworkforfoodjnr
I wish I was breeding. Right now. *sigh*
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind
Give a man a fish and he'll eat 4 a day hit a man with a brick and you can have all his fish and his wife
"Will's to pretty for prison" - Simian
#homeofpoi -- irc.newnet.net Come talk to us we're bored
Warning: Please Do Not Jump On The Seals
"God *was* my co-pilot, but then we crashed, and I had to eat him..."
Written by oc Lightning
So that raises the next issue -- and here is where I take issue with VHEMT -- in order to accept VHEMT, you have to accept that human life is actually somehow less ...er... pointful (is that the opposite of "pointless"?) than other life. If you can accept that, then it makes sense that humans should go extinct... or does it?
Written by oc Lightning
See, humans may yet become a starfaring race. As we spread across the gulfs between the stars, we will take other life forms with us (although hopefully we'll leave mosquitos and Hippies behind ). In another 2 billion years, the Sun's temperature will have increased to the point where Earth's surface is much more akin to that of Venus today (and this is still 2 billion years before the Sun becomes a red giant!).
If we all die, then all life on Earth has no chance. Alternatively, another species may become sentient. For all we know, it could have happened before.
Of course, what I bring up only forestalls another problem: a yellow dwarf star like the Sun has a lifespan of about 10 billion years, give or take a couple billion. A red dwarf, because of its far slower rate of fusion, may live 100 billion years, and maybe as long as a trillion. That's far older than the age of the universe now.
But eventually, all the hydrogen in the universe will either be fused or will be dispersed in useless, diffuse clouds that cannot form stars. Galaxies will "relax" and stars will either be cast out of the galaxy or fall into the central black holes. Eventually, the stars will stop shining and only black holes and neutron stars will remain. A few hundred trillion to a few quadrillion years after that, proton and neutron decay will become an important factor and even the neutron stars and few remaining bodies of normal matter will evaporate over time. The last things to go will be the black holes. As the universe expands ever more quickly (which seems to be what the current theories indicate), the only things that will remain will be vast "atoms" consisting of a single electron and a single positron. These "atoms" will be larger than the size of the current visible universe. They will slowly circle each-other and eventually annihilate as they come together. Whether the universe will run out of these or expand so quickly that they never all get used up is unclear.
Written by :VHEMT
That's humanity for you: our sights are on the stars while we're sinking in toxic sludge. For space migration to keep our numbers stable, 100 space ships holding 2,000 people each would have to blast off every day: one every 15 minutes. Contraception is cheaper.
New world colonization by Europeans didn't relieve population pressure in Europe -- just increased it elsewhere.
What kind of life would we primates, barely out of the jungle, make for ourselves in a space station? We aren't domesticated enough to keep from going bonkers in remote, desolate outposts like Antarctica. Anyway, who wants to live inside a building for 10 or 20 years? To seriously imagine ourselves living that way reveals the extent of our mental disconnect from Nature.
We barely live healthy lives in our artificial environments here on Earth. Indoor air averages many times more toxic than outside air. Emotional stress resembles that of captive animals -- for good reason. Although our cage bars may only be abstract, like the bars crossing the €, $, £, and ¥ in our money, their specter crosses our paths to freedom.
Dreaming of some day shooting our aspirations off into space could deaden our sense of responsibility here on Earth. We have a nasty habit of fouling our nests and moving on. The USA's National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) has jettisoned the phrase, "To understand and protect our home planet" from its mission statement. Already, near space is loaded with so much obsolete electronic junk and astronauts' end products that NASA Space Shuttles and the International Space Station have to dodge or get a fatal hole. We've placed our cultural icons on the moon: a flag, a golf ball, and an abandoned vehicle. Space trash.
Before we seek out new worlds and boldly go where no human has gone before, we have an obligation to clean up our messes on this world.
Let's be grateful we don't live on the moon or in space. Our personal castles on Earth may not be much, but our efforts often make them garden sanctuaries a thousand times nicer than luxury quarters in a giant tin can drifting in space.
Written by oc Lightning
And that makes me wonder...
...if there is no point to it all, then why not keep on living?
Written by :jo_rhymes
I don't think mass suicide is the answer, at all, I can just understand why they are doing it. It seems quite noble if you think about it!
Written by :Doc Lightning
Well, we have no other known intelligences on which to base assumptions, but it stands to reason that if there were another race before us, at least some of their garbage (radioactives, plastics) would still be around, making us wonder where they are from.
To my knowledge, we haven't found such things.
Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like Water.
Put Water into a cup, it becomes the cup, put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, or it can Crash.
Be Water My Friend.
Written by :PsyRush
Nihilism can't be used as an excuse to commit crimes (the crime in this case causing the end to all life on earth somehow - assuming it will happen).
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Written by : Jo
Most of Nature is in balance, the various eco-systems make life on Earth pretty-near perfect. and then humans came along. And it all got out of balance.
Written by : PsyRush - in context to VHMT
The crime in this case causing the end to all life on earth somehow - assuming it will happen
Written by : PsyRush - quoting VHMT
all species have equal worth, but because humans are the only ones that cause far more other species to go extinct and disrupt the biosphere, humans ought to go.
the best smiles are the ones you lead to
Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
"vices are like genitals - most are ugly to behold, and yet we find that our own are dear to us."
(G.W. Dahlquist)
Owner of Dragosani's left half
Written by :Doc LightningWritten by :PsyRush
Nihilism can't be used as an excuse to commit crimes (the crime in this case causing the end to all life on earth somehow - assuming it will happen).
Well but that's exactly my point. So it doesn't matter. Fantastic. Why not keep on living? So we accidentally wipe ourselves and all life on Earth. Oh shucks. Some green-skinned dude living on an earth-like planet ten million light years from here will never care.
Written by :FireTomWritten by : PsyRush
The crime in this case causing the end to all life on earth somehow - assuming it will happen
And the event to end all life on this planet - or in the Universe - is as remote as to aim a slingshot at Gizeh Pyramids from Trafalgar square.
Life is amazingly resistant to any threat. Even on this planet we will find life in the most hostile environments: 10.000 leaps under the sea and next to a sulphuric source. No light, no oxygen, heavy pressure, extreme heat - and still life evolves right there.
Written by :Dr_Birgit
I won't click on the site because I've been on a similar one before, Mucky has taken care of commenting on some of the issues and I don't want to waste my time reading that nonsense again.
If they want to not breed, fine (I'm with willworkforfood though). Unfortunately some of them have also turned missionary and tried to tell off friends of mine for having a child and being horrible to the planet.
I'm sure they address the issue somewhere, but rather than waste energy and food and oxygen by having a website and existing, if they were serious about saving the planet they should just buy a gun and shoot some people, including themselves. Who knows, maybe they can start a successful cult if they use public settings.