Something to consider: Large families are good for the environment

From the blogger who maintains Starry Sky Ranch:

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The last Earth Day celebration our family attended was in the mid '90s. I had several young homeschoolers and was expecting another baby. It was free and educational so hey, we were there! Before attending this event I was not familiar with the term "zero population". I wandered past the Sierra Club table and saw literature with that phrase displayed. I stopped and read, bewildered. Did it really suggest that the solution to our environmental problems was the elimination of babies? Indeed.

The man behind the table was pacing and silently counting heads. He looked at my children like they were sucking his air. As the message his organization was presenting sank in I said, "My goodness! We must be your worst nightmare then, huh?" He didn't say no. In fact what he did say, looking at my belly, was, "It's not to late to stop!" I try not to think of what he was implying.

His solution to our environmental problems reminds me of those who are 'eliminating' birth defects by eliminating handicapped babies in utero. That doesnt solve a problem. We can do better than that. Maureen's article has lots of food for thought. I am guessing our clan of 11 is easily more planet friendly than most families of four. We eat out maybe once a year. We make most of our food or buy it as ingredients rather than as packaged products. I drive an ancient van - twice a week. I buy all our clothing second hand and have furnished our home with about 75% thrifted treasures and refurbished hand me downs. We are raising animals suited to foraging in undesirable conditions. We tread lightly on the Earth. Tiptoes even. ; )

I admittedly have little tolerance for Hollywood figures jetting around the world dispensing environmental directives while they sip designer coffee in styrofoam cups, replacing their wardrobes every season, building oversized heated and cooled homes. My feeling is that environmentalism, like charity, begins at home. It begins small. It begins with selfdenial and thriftiness. It begins with phrases like:

Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Do without.

My best advice for saving the planet? Stay home. : ) You will use less, spend less, and want less.

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What do you make of this? Certainly having a large family on a lower-middle- or middle-class, one-person income requires that the parents become creatively thrifty. I know my fiance's parents (who had seven children in 10 years) did it--my future mother-in-law still grows all of their vegetables and peels potatoes to make French fries rather than buying them frozen and pre-packaged. My fiance can count on his hands the number of times he ate fast food before he was on his own financially. They compost EVERYTHING, reuse EVERYTHING--clothing, toys, etc. It's certainly a contrast to my only-child, two-income upbringing that involves lots of gas-using vacations and daily trips back and forth to ballet class with pit stops at fast food restaurants and Wal-Mart and the consumption, consumption, consumption, spend, spend, spend lifestyle I'm trying to crawl out of now. And while he and his siblings aren't environmental activists, they're definitely better environmentalists than I am, simply by virtue of following their parents' example.