The planet isn’t about to collapse. The planet it will survive. That said, the megafauna (elephants, rhinos, polar bears, etc.) are pretty much screwed—and it’s because the ZPG movement (Zero Population Growth) of the late 1960s/early 1970s came and went without really effectively getting their message out there. Prior to the 1960s, birth control was unreliable and frequently not used at all; however, The Pill changed all that. That was the genesis of the Sexual Revolution, and birth rates did go down, but not nearly enough. I’m glad I’ll be dead when things get really bad; I really don’t understand how people can bring children into a world of increasing scarcity.

If this was the norm, it would take one single generation for the total population to rise fivefold. Probably more like quadrupling, since not everybody can or want to have children. It is bad enough to add another billion in a generation.

Hi, Orillion. I absolutely agree with you. I did not imply that this is common at all, I tried to answer his question in a way that would also make people think. Later, I checked what I said about adding another billion in a generation. I am troubled to say that I was off the mark by a fair bit. Right now, we will become a billion more much faster than a generation. To Full Name, if much more people than now chose to not have children, and many more would opt for fewer children, then the chances for longtime survival of humans, as well as an awful lot of other species on our little planet would increase greatly.

The ignorance in the responses to your question are astounding. Do these people also criticize people that have zero children? If we all had no children then the population would go to zero in one lifetime.

@Monika Soffronow I'm fairly confident in saying families like this are, and will always be, extreme outliers. This is not a case where people will read this and go "we should have 11 kids too".

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Who are you to say? Some people want 0 and they wanted 11. Plus they can afford them!

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If you can't figure this out on your own then I really don't feel like helping you.

Overpopulation is a thing! Stupid, selfish and downright evil!

The fertility rate for India in the year 2017: about 2.3 children born per woman of childbearing age. According to the World Health Organization, 2.1 is the replacement rate.

But it's not her planet

Its not about having children, it is about having 11 (eleven) children! Why do you make so many? Do you think the kids are happy wearing their older brothers' clothes and not having any attention from their mother being bussy with the latest baby? Do you honestly think it is a good idea? Also - the Earth is overpopulated and soon we will have to restrict ourselves to having one child - why she gets to have 11 - how are her genes better than anyone else?

Victoria, would you defend my right to use nuclear weapons? No, I did not think so. Not everything is, or should be, on the "my-choice-if-I-want-to spectrum. At the present moment, we, as a species, by means of overpopulating it, are destroying our one and only planet as efficiently as if were nuking it. Besides that, try to rein in your pottymouth a little, you will find that people will be more willing to engage with you.

I have seen and personally know far too many people to whom it is just another boost in their Family Allowance or an increase to their welfare cheques ... I won't even start on all the women running around having babies just try and 'keep their man' o_0

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Yes, says me. My fuking opinion. Yours sucks.

Believe me, it's not vegetarians who make all the difference in terms of carbon footprints. Like, be a vegetarian all you want, but that's not a very good reason given the evidence.

Well, the dad is a train driver enabling many people to make their journeys without cars so I guess it balances out.

Very true, technically he is 1/2 a contributor........I was gonna say "or is he" but all the kids look EXACTLY the same so he is definitely a contributor lol