PORTLAND, United States — For someone who wants his own species to go
extinct, Les Knight is a remarkably happy-go-lucky human.
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He has regularly hosted
meteor shower parties with rooftop fireworks. He organized a long-running game
of croquet in his backyard. Even Tucker Carlson proved no match for Knight’s
ebullience. During a 2005 interview with Knight on
MSNBC, Carlson criticized
him for espousing “the sickest” of beliefs but then added, “You are one of the
cheeriest guests we’ve ever had.”
Knight, 75, is the
founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction movement, which is less a movement
than a loose consortium of people who believe that the best thing humans can do
to help the Earth is to stop having children.
Knight added the
word “voluntary” decades ago to make it clear that adherents do not support
mass murder or forced birth control, nor do they encourage suicide. Their ethos
is echoed in their motto, “May we live long and die out,” and in another one of
their slogans, which Knight hangs at various conventions and street fairs,
“Thank you for not breeding.”
On November 15, the
Earth became home to a record 8 billion human beings. Despite declining
birthrates, the number is forecast to peak at 10.4 billion in the coming
decades, in large part because of increases in life expectancy and decreases in
child mortality.
Knight is among
those who believe that overpopulation is a main factor in the climate crisis,
but that idea can be fraught. Poor countries that are heavily populated, such
as India, contribute relatively little per capita to the greenhouse gas
emissions that are heating the planet. Wealthy countries with relatively
smaller populations like the
US are generating most of the pollution that is
driving global warming.
“The problem that
is spiraling out of control is consumption,” said John Wilmoth, director of the
United Nations’ population division, who said that focusing on population
limitation as a potential climate fix diverts attention from the urgent need
for everyone to ditch fossil fuels and more efficiently use resources. “We have
to transform the economic incentives that make it possible to profit off of
polluting the environment.”
The idea that
population must be controlled has also led to forced sterilizations and
measures that have proved inhumane or have been linked to racist theories like
eugenics.
Yet Stephanie
Feldstein, director of population and sustainability at the Center for
Biological Diversity, said while greater human longevity and health were good
things, they have come at a cost to other living things on the planet.
As the human
population doubled in the last half-century, wildlife populations declined by
70 percent. Although lowering fertility rates today will not change emissions
in the short-term, she said surges in the human population would put increasing
pressure on dwindling natural resources and the intricate web of animals, birds
and plants that depend on them.
“The loss of
biodiversity can be just as devastating as it unravels the ecosystems we need
to survive,” Feldstein said. “We’re already using nearly twice as many
resources as the Earth can replenish in a year.”
One of the most
effective ways to combat global warming, say both climate activists and those
concerned about overpopulation, is to expand access to education for girls
around the world, in addition to birth control and family planning. Nearly half
of all pregnancies worldwide, some 121 million a year, are unintended.
But it is rare to
find anyone who publicly goes as far as Knight, who never had children and got
a vasectomy in 1973 at the age of 25. Beyond advocating for universal access to
birth control and opposing what he calls reproductive fascism, or “the lack of
freedom to not procreate”, Knight said that despite our many achievements,
humans are a net detriment to the Earth.
“Look what we did
to this planet,” Knight said during a chat in his sunlit backyard one warm
morning this fall. “We’re not a good species.”
It is unclear how
many adherents are in Knight’s group or what the extent of its reach is. After
being largely underground, the group took off in popularity when Knight created
a website in 1996. Text-heavy yet breezy, the site includes quotes from
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and cartoons by artist Nina Paley, as well as
arguments against procreation and for adoption. It has been translated into
some 30 languages and remains a haven for many.
“It was very nice
news for me that this kind of group existed, because one usually, with this
kind of philosophy, feels alone,” said Mario Buenfil, 73, a water engineer in
Mexico City who has been involved with the movement for 20 years.
Still, the words
“voluntary human extinction” often elicit reactions of spluttering horror, and
terms like “eco-fascist” and “Malthusian” are often lobbed at the group. John
Seager, the president of Population Connection, a nonprofit that advocates
population stabilization through voluntary means, likened it to a sideshow. Yet
if the group’s provocative name and seemingly pugilistic stance suggest an
embittered or even menacing founder, Knight seems anything but.
Tall and gentle,
Knight comes across as clear-eyed and thoughtful, like a mashup of Bill Nye and
Fred Rogers. While Knight may be against the creation of more humans, he shows
great compassion for the ones that already exist.
A high school
substitute teacher for most of his working life, Knight is fondly regarded by
students. He spends hours each Sunday morning picking up litter from the nearby
main road. During an interview, he paused to appreciate two juicy garden
spiders taking in the sun on gossamer webs spun between the hedges and lawn
chairs. The sight was a cause for celebration, Knight said, after so many
critters were killed during last year’s heat dome in the Pacific Northwest. A
self-professed serial monogamist, he lives alone, but his girlfriend lives next
door and is fully on board with his cause.
“He doesn’t have a
giant ego that he struts around with. He doesn’t try to argue with people,”
said Marv Ross, Knight’s former college roommate and a long-time friend. “He
was always about humor, to make it as fun as possible to get his message
across, and I saw him do it many times. He’d deflect people getting upset with
a joke or a smile.”
As a child growing
up in a tolerant family in Oregon, Knight watched timber companies chop down
the state’s forests. After being drafted in the US Army during the Vietnam War
(he served but never got deployed), he attended Oregon College of Education and
joined the local chapter of Zero Population Growth, which cemented his resolve
not to have children. “It was always because of the ecology, because of the
damage that humans do to the environment,” he said.
His beliefs were
rooted in deep ecology, which challenges assumptions of human dominance and
argues that other species are just as significant. Knight came to see humans as
the most destructive of invasive species, and as super predators.
“We came to be and
then ran amok,” Knight said. “And because we’re smart enough, we should know
enough to end it.
“People mention
music and art and literature and the great things that we have done. It’s funny
they don’t ever mention the bad things we’ve done,” he continued. “I don’t
think the whales will miss our songs.”
While the US saw an
increase in births during the coronavirus pandemic, reversing the country’s
declining birthrate, a 2020 poll found that one in four Americans who had not
had children cited
climate change as a reason. Research has shown that having
one fewer child is perhaps the most significant way to reduce one’s carbon
footprint, and while Knight does not like to push his beliefs on people, he
likes to think there are some humans who do not exist because of his efforts.
Feldstein said
Knight succeeded at grabbing people’s attention and starting conversations.
“He’s advocating
for so many of the same things as the rest of us, trying to make sure everyone
has the ability, autonomy and resources they need to choose if and when to have
children,” she said.
And though the
world’s population is at a record high, Knight said, it is not getting him
down.
“I never expected to succeed,” he said. “I think that’s the
secret to not burning out.”
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