With reproduction below replacement rates, we are headed toward a depopulation societal collapse.
I personally agree with the message of and support the The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement [0].
There is good introduction in form of a short film "Thank You For Not Breeding" [1].
My personal ultimate goal is to simultaneously reduce the suffering of sentient life and allow it to flourish throughout the universe. The Earth itself is just a necessary container for it for the time being. It's an inanimate hunk of molecules. Blow it up for all I care, and all the plants and archaea and bacteria and such, if beforehand every human and non-human animal can be safely transported or teleported to another celestial object or structure which supports animal life. (Obviously this is extremely unrealistic.)
Is the best way to preserve sentient life the elimination of sapient life? It's one way, but I don't necessarily think it's the best way. And that's not even considering the utility one might attribute to the total number of sapient entities and how it might compare to non-sapient ones.
Also, practically speaking, it's probably easier to convince enough people to address the problem of ecological destruction than to convince everyone on Earth to never reproduce. If both turn out to be impossible, then I guess that's just how the story goes.
And maybe those higher aims can serve as one's higher aspirations or guiding purpose, even in the absence of religious beliefs that one sees as actually true, and which lead one to be kind & honest, and to strive for competence in service to family and humanity. I suggested so in my own writings (at my site), but perhaps less eloquently than the parent comment.
My beliefs agree that the earth has a purpose, and also is a creation worth of our respectful stewardship, for high purposes. And that we can be OK and don't have to depopulate -- that there is enough, and to spare, to fulfill the higher purposes, which is comforting to know.
Here is the famous quote from him:
“We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!
We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
Plastic… asshole.”I am very grateful to have learned for myself by multiple means that God is real, in charge, and has a long-term plan for us that extends beyond this life, and for which this earth is an important part, that we should respect, also because it is His beautiful creation and our home.
Others will disagree, and we all will choose for ourselves. I hope that while we are choosing, we can treat each other and the earth with honesty, respect, and kindness.
(thoughtful comments appreciated)
https://www.greenmatters.com/p/how-many-face-masks-ocean-202...
I hope that makes some sense, whether or not we agree on details. More is elsewhere.
If you are saying that you are solely responsible for your own actions, why then you need an inert Bystander?
It is completely indifferent and you can choose any other Totem to run your thoughts by, or act in the Name of.
You can choose Neutrinos, for example. They are truly abundant and omnipresent -- quazillions of Neutrinos are passing through your body each femtosecond. They are not forcing you to do anything (because they do not interact). They are just filling your body with their presence.
You can talk to them and ask them for the Way, and they will share the same space with you to comfort you, as you know they are with you, but also leave you to your options.
The Neutrinos are fully inert Bystanders.
I have learned some things for myself, not as a constructed philosophy, but as a determination of truth from multiple angles. Anyone can begin and continue to learn for themselves if they want and humbly & sincerely try. It has been important to me, to know for myself, because just believing what someone else said or wrote has limits. I have written about it in great detail at my site (noted in my profile), to be either skimmed or pursued, to the extent that one desires. All the best wishes to you in your endeavors.
(Edits: some phrasing.)
Edit: Also, everyone will eventually have a opportunity to know and choose accordingly, so by "fair", above, I mean that all will have a fair chance to receive their reward or punishment according to their own true desires and choices.
Your may be talking about more strict immigration policies but the subject here is "societal collapse" and population reduction and I was pointing out a possibility.
A probable outcome would be that another society takes over the one disappearing.