Originally posted by normbenignWell why don't you just pat yourself on the back, then? The fact is that the carbon footprint of the first world countries still far outweighs that of the third world, despite the population imbalance. The world might be able to support 11 billion people if they all had the carbon footprint of the average third world inhabitant. The fact that they're all aspiring to 1st world levels of affluence is what's going to sink us.
Check out population growth figures. Human population is only growing in the third world, probably where it can be afforded the least, and where it is also the cheapest. A lot of Western cultures are at reproduction rates less than two, purely voluntarily.
Originally posted by normbenignBe alive does not imply create more of it.
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple."
Indeed, but one thing is necessary for life to continue. All life continues via some form of procreation. If not, that form of life becomes extinct.
Our strongest instincts are survival and procreation. All the other stuff we learn or discover.
There is no point of life whatsoever. We will all die, our genetic offspring will die, all life on earth will die, earth itself will disappear, all life in the universe will die and the universe itself will cease to exist.
Everything you've ever done and ever will do will amount to exactly nothing, zilch, nada. Unless someone can find a secret doorway to escape this universe, the existence of the entire universe and reality itself will be meaningless.
You could go on a rampage, kill everyone in sight, nuke the whole planet. You could cure aids, dementia, cancer. Get rid of hunger and war. Stop children from dying. You could abolish all religion or convert everyone to yours. Pray all day long. Be happy, be sad. Sit on your couch watching tv all day long, or work 16 hours a day for 50 years. Have kids. Raise them the best way you can. Make sure they live a good life. See them grow up and have children of their own.
None of it will matter. You too will die and had you made the opposite choice of every choice you've ever made in your life, it would't have made a heap of difference. You won't be remembered anyway.