Adrian Gattenhof, Mullumbimby
A modest proposal for Extinction Rebellion: make love – but not babies. Extinction Rebellion’s concern for our extinction is misplaced. We are the most widespread, numerous and ravenous mammal on earth, almost eight billion.
The UN forecasts 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. Imagine the havoc with those numbers. Lords of creation we can and will metastasise into any niche able to support us. If that extinguishes other beings so be it. We are the threat, not the threatened. The second asteroid, we are perpetrators of the holocaust of the animals.
In balanced ecosystems the top predator is in the smallest number. We are the top predator and out of control. Our fellow creatures reduced to prey, pests or pets.
The truly wild and free have all but vanished. Climate change is but one of our destructive impacts. Even with a zero-carbon economy, if the infinite growth, infinite consumption demands of klepto-capitalism party-on then so will extinctions.
We have no right to rob our fellow creatures of their rightful places on earth. We have already taken far too much.
There can be no sustainability without a steady-state economy and a stable population. We men drive the war on nature. Empowerment of women is the best hope. Like modern Lysistratas, if women worldwide had just one child each, until balance is restored, our place on earth would be sustainable. Left to alpha males, we will burn Earth to a desert and fantasise about terraforming Mars.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
