Rise of Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is an environmental movement started in the United States by Les U. Knight, a former teacher from Portland, Oregon, who argues that the best thing humans could do for the planet's other species is to stop having children, so that the human population gradually declines to zero. Its slogan is May we live long and die out. The movement does not advocate suicide, violence or coercion, only voluntary abstention from reproduction, and it presents its position as a way to allow ecosystems to recover. It has attracted much media attention and criticism, and it is generally considered an extreme position, although it has helped provoke debate about population and consumption.

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