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one child

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I've just finished reading a really excellent X'mas gift from my mother, a book titled The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It chronicles the things that would happen to the world if humans were to suddenly vanish. Naturally, it's a happy story for the planet, with many major terrestrial species rapidly rebounding, and the seas returning to their natural state -- so full of large fish, turtles and mammals that it would be completely unrecognizable.

And it finishes with a simple summary: we're eating our way to ecological oblivion, but we might yet have some hope. If we can bring down the birthrate to a single child per mother, and maintain that negative growth, the human population could be brought under control without us first devastating the world.

I'm convinced. How to break the news to my wife, though.