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Comment by Etheryte | Hacker News Reader

For those wondering about the relative impact of each bullet, [1] is a quick starting point down a rabbit-hole that goes very deep.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wynes_Nicholas_CO2_emissi...

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Sure if one is counting just their personal impact, but in reality the developing nations will have no problem replacing you and the children you choose to not have with their own and it'll be a wash. Those resources don't disappear, the market will move them around.

Is the argument to have less kids to save the planet not just population control propaganda?

For context, I'm very neutral on the matter so take the following as just a musing on the topic. I'm not really familiar with the stats here, so do pardon if I'm starkly mistaken, but it would seem intuitive that having a child in countries A and B would have a different impact based on how developed countries A and B are. If a kid from A grows up to own a car, fly around etc, and the kid from B cannot afford to, the footprint difference between these two individuals would be considerable. This is obviously only looking at a single child, how the fact that people in more developed countries tend to have less children plays into this and pushes the balance one or the other way is unclear.

Did I say this wasn’t for developing nations? This pledge is for everyone. All people from all places worldwide.

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