On the Facebook group where “Special Envoy” met Florent, a graphic published by the France Presse agency in 2018 was widely shared. It lists the best practices for reducing your carbon footprint, and measures their effectiveness. Change your bulbs, adopt a plant-based diet, give up a transatlantic flight … The decision with the greatest impact, on the last line of the graph, is “to have one less child”.
“So I think, smiles the young man of 27 years, that I am much greener than average, even while riding my motorcycle. ” This young carpenter says he’s seriously thinking about vasectomy so as not to have children “in a world that would not be suitable for him” : the best decision to make today, according to him.
“We’re going straight into the wall”
His convictions, he forged them one or two years ago, and he shares them with his friend Gauthier, 26 years old. “We are exploding the world population, and çIt’s okay when it’s 10 little Africans who are born, because they’re not going to pollute that much … but when it’s two Europeans, it’s catastrophic. And an American or a Chinese, it’s even worse … We’re going straight into the wall “, estimates this young farmer in Aviré, near Angers, in Maine-et-Loire.
“There are between 220,000 and 250,000 more humans on Earth every day”, he often reminds their group of friends, where the positions of Gauthier and Florent are considered exaggerated. The trend is however clear: according to a study published by the scientific journal The Lancet Planetary Health, and conducted from May to June 2021 on 10,000 young people aged 16 to 25 in ten countries, 39% of respondents would hesitate to have children in the world of tomorrow.
Extract from “I do not want a child”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on October 21, 2021.
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