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Comment by residentfoam | Hacker News Reader

So you are saying that children "have a massive impact on climate change" ?

I don't have any statistics that can either confirm or dispute that assertion. But I will gladly ban SUV and Cruise s in favor of whatever climate impact children can have.

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Are you crazy? Increasing the number of humans on the planet is the number one thing you can do to worsen climate change. You forget that we are nothing but an organism, we all produce waste and contribute hardly nothing beneficial to the environment.

If that is true of organisms, then life of all types is a net negative.

What a sad perspective. I know many people who contribute massively to the environment. Maybe you need to choose a different, pro-environment lifestyle? Plant some trees. It's possible to live carbon negative and pass on those values to your children.

You should acquaint yourself with trees and fungus, if you think negative environmental impact is the case with all organisms.

Indeed.

Oh, I'm sure an overgrowth of trees or fungus would lead to a net negative for some living thing somewhere.

> You forget that we are nothing but an organism, we all produce waste and contribute hardly nothing beneficial to the environment.

So in your view, humans are weeds. Do you think it's time to get out the weedkiller?

Why not just raise your kids with a low eco footprint? The whole argument is silly to me. If you want to find the best action you and your children can do about climate change - it’s going vegan.

The impact of changing your diet is not all that large. You can wipe out a year of eating vegan with a single transatlantic flight.

There’s a ton of info out there that says it better than I can but the consensus is the vegan diet is the biggest thing you can do.

“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” said Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research. “It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” he said, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems,” he said. “Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...

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