Bill Maher Honors Childfree Choice

Bill Maher once again adorns our Wall of Fame, this time for his suggestion that we add another holiday on top of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, to honor people who, it turns out, are the greenest environmental stewards of our time:

I Didn’t Reproduce Day

Maher now has the distinction of more Growth Bias Busted Wall of Fame appearances than any other celebrity, politician or journalist. As you hopefully know, we bust pro-growth bias on the Wall of Shame, but we also – on the Wall of Fame – celebrate the very best media examples in which growth issues are treated accurately and realistically. Overpopulation is one such issue, and Maher has been routinely telling it like it is. Thank you, Bill Maher.

“…you know what Mother Nature loves even more than electric cars? Condoms. There’s literally nothing you can do that’s better for the environment than to NOT produce another resource-sucking, waste-making human being….”

This one is definitely worth sharing for what may come as a surprise to octomoms, Romneys and Duggars:

“You can do it all, you can get the hybrid car, do the recycling, not throwing batteries in the trash, it all adds up to a fraction of the good it would do to have just one less child, because that child increases your carbon legacy by over 9,000 tons.”

Of course, reducing one’s carbon footprint doesn’t seem to be on the radar screen of octomoms, Romneys and Duggars. But more and more scientists, ethicists, comedians, and even a few economists are now talking openly about how choosing a small family is the responsible thing to do when faced with a greenhouse-gas-induced climate crisis.

This is going to slowly change the norm, so the next generation of potential octomoms will choose NOT to conceive 8, or even 6, 4 or 2 children. Having a large brood is going to go the way of the Hummer. Today no self-respecting environmentalist would be caught dead driving a huge, gaz-guzzling SUV. Tomorrow having stopped at one or chosen to go childfree will be a badge of honor, a source of pride.

Incidentally, you don’t have to be an “environmentalist” to practice safe sex. You might not care about Mother Nature (I can’t imagine that, but I guess there are some New Yorkers who’ve never seen anything that wasn’t erected by a real estate developer). But if you want the world’s children to have a shot at living decent lives, then you’ll want to practice sex that’s safe for human civilization. It’s more than a bit ironic that today if you truly love children, you’ll have none!

Of course, here at the GrowthBusters project we’ve been doing our part. We created stick figure family stickers you can put on your car to express your pride and accelerate the shift to a small family norm. Order yours here.

Displaying a ChildFree, Stopped at Zero, Stopped at One, or Stopped at Two sticker will help to make small families cool. I’m going to send a stopped at Zero sticker to Bill Maher so he can slap that puppy on his Volt and gain even more respect as the most notable, articulate celebrity spokesperson for sanity about family size decisions.

You may also want to sign the Sustainable Population Pledge at World Population Balance.