Q: What is the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement?
VHEMT (pronounced vehement) is a movement not an organization. It's a movement advanced by people who care about life on planet Earth. We're not just a bunch of misanthropes and anti-social, Malthusian misfits, taking morbid delight whenever disaster strikes humans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Voluntary human extinction is the humanitarian alternative to human disasters.
We don't carry on about how the human race has shown itself to be a greedy, amoral parasite on the once-healthy face of this planet. That type of negativity offers no solution to the inexorable horrors which human activity is causing.
Rather, The Movement presents an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of Earth's ecology.
As VHEMT Volunteers know, the hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens... us.
Each time another one of us decides to not add another one of us to the burgeoning billions already squatting on this ravaged planet, another ray of hope shines through the gloom.
When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth's biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps pass away, as so many of Nature's "experiments" have done throughout the eons.
It's going to take all of us going.
Graphic by Nina Paley
Colorized by Aaron Hackmann
We're really vehement.
Many see humor in The Movement and think we can't be serious about voluntary human extinction, but in spite of the seriousness of both situation and movement, there's room for humor. In fact, without humor, Earth's condition gets unbearably depressing -- a little levity eases the gravity.
True, wildlife rapidly going extinct and 40,000 children dying each day are not laughing matters, but neither laughing nor bemoaning will change what's happening. We may as well have some fun as we work and play toward a better world.
Besides, returning Earth to its natural splendor and ending
needless suffering of humanity are happy thoughts -- no sense moping
around in gloom and doom.
VHEMT Volunteers are realistic. We know we'll never see the day there are no human beings on the planet. Ours is a long-range goal.
It has been suggested that there are only two chances of everyone volunteering to stop breeding: slim and none. The odds may be against preserving life on Earth, but the decision to stop reproducing is still the morally correct one. Indeed, the likelihood of our failure to avoid the massive die off which humanity is engineering is a very good reason to not sentence another of us to life. The future isn't what it used to be.
Even if our chances of succeeding were only one in a hundred, we would have to try. Giving up and allowing humanity to take its course is unconscionable. There is far too much at stake.
The Movement may be considered a success each time one more of us
volunteers to breed no more.
After we've seen a few hundred TV dramas where the good guy kicks the bad guy's butt, it's tempting to look at the real world with this same knee jerk, zero-sum mentality. We might look for an enemy to attack when championing our righteous cause, but in reality our enemy doesn't have a butt to kick.
In the end, the real "enemies" are human greed, ignorance, and oppression. We can achieve more by promoting generosity, awareness, and freedom than we can by vainly kicking at a buttless foe.
Great progress will be made toward improving the quality of life on Earth by countering greed with responsibility, ignorance with education, and oppression with freedom.
Instead of meeting the bad guys in the street at high noon and shooting it out, why not invite them into the saloon to work things out?
Since the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement isn't alive with a brain or a mouth, it can't take positions or have opinions. It can't get into arguments, tell people what to do and think, nor get punched for doing so.
Voluntary human extinction is simply a concept to be added to existing belief systems, not a complex code of behavior to live by. No committee of Movement shakers decides what position everyone else should take.
Most Volunteers subscribe to the philosophy embodied in the motto: "May we live long and die out," but if someone doesn't want to live long that's their business. Really, the only action required for becoming a VHEMT Volunteer or Supporter is not adding another human being to the population. A couple could conceivably be expecting and decide to become VHEMT. That new human would be the last one they produced. VHEMT Supporters are not necessarily in favor of human extinction, but agree that no more of us should be created at this time.
Volunteers are so diverse in religious, political, and
philosophical views that it would be divisive to begin formulating
official Movement positions. Beware of dogmas. We speak with our own
voices.
Roots of VHEMT run as deep as human history. Potential for a voluntary human extinction movement has been around for as long as humans have.
When Ice Age humans hunted animals to extinction, at least one of the Neanderdunces among them must have grunted in bewilderment. As the Fertile Crescent became a barren desert, and the Cedars of Lebanon were sacrificed for temples, someone must have thought, "this bodes ill." When Romans fueled their empire by extracting resources from near and far, surely someone remarked, "Humanus non gratis," or words to that effect. Someone had to get the idea that the planet would be better off without this busy horde.
Someone, that is, besides the middle-eastern god, Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah. Tradition tells how, in prehistoric times, this creator-god realized his mistake in making humans and was going to flush us from the system, but in a weak moment he spared one breeding family. Oops! (Genesis 6:5-6).
We call The Movement VHEMT, but it's undoubtedly been given other names throughout history. None have been recorded, as far as we know.
There must be millions of people around the world who are independently arriving at the same conclusion. A large portion of today's Volunteers were vehement extinctionists before they learned of the title "VHEMT".
The true origins of The Movement can be found in the natural
abundance of love and logic within each one of us. Our in-born sense
of justice guides us to make the responsible choice.
No one person is the founder of VHEMT. Les U. Knight gave the name "Voluntary Human Extinction Movement" to a philosophy or worldview which has existed for as long as humans have been sapient. It's an awareness which has been arrived at independently in many places throughout history, but had become lost amid societies' pronatalism.
Like millions of other people, Les followed a simple train of logic, guided by love, and arrived at the conclusion that Gaia would be better off without humans. He could be considered the finder, having identified The Movement by giving it a name, though each of us finds the truth for ourselves.
Although Les has become known internationally as a spokesperson
for The Movement, no one can speak for all VHEMT Volunteers. There is
no official position on issues beyond what is implied in the name of
The Movement.
Today's children are tomorrow's destiny. Our children have the potential for achieving the awareness needed to reverse civilization's direction and begin restoring Earth's biosphere. Most could use our help in realizing their full potentials
Naturally. You won't be alone. When people gain the VHEMT perspective, they decide to add no more to the existing human family. They don't pressure their children to give them grandchildren and might encourage them to make a responsible choice with their fertility.
There is no reason to feel guilty about the past. Guilt doesn't lead to positive solutions. Being VHEMT has nothing to do with the past. It's the future of life on Earth that Volunteers want to preserve.
At first glance, some people assume that VHEMT Volunteers and Supporters must hate people and that we want everyone to commit suicide or become victims of mass murder. It's easy to forget that another way to bring about a reduction in our numbers is to simply stop making more of us. Making babies seems to be a blind spot in our outlooks on life.
The idea of all of us voluntarily refraining from procreation is often dismissed without much consideration. These examples are considered elsewhere at this site:
However, if any of us thinks about the situation long enough, and makes the effort to work through those socially-instilled blocks to clear thinking, we will arrive at virtually the same conclusion: we should voluntarily phase ourselves out for the good of humanity and planet.
VHEMT is naturally in opposition to involuntary extinction of any species, as well as any efforts encouraging human extermination. There are presently concerted efforts supporting both of these horrors. For example:
The above could be called the Terrorist Human Extermination Movement (THEM), but that's labeling and encourages a "Them or Us" attitude.
VHEMT is opposed to what these people are doing, but it's doubtful
any would bother to return the favor. Really, there isn't much point
in opposing a voluntary movement which harms none and benefits
all.
I think voluntary human
extinction is misguided or worse..
Q: How do I join?
Being VHEMT is a state of mind. All you have to do to join is make the choice to refrain from further reproduction. For some, this is an easy decision to make. For others, it's a moot issue. But for many, joining The Movement means making a monumental personal sacrifice.
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is not an organization, so no membership dues go to officials in offices. We are millions of individuals, each doing what we feel is best. Join with other VHEMT Volunteers and Supporters.
The VHEMT web site has been available to visitors since July 1996. People all over the globe are visiting these pages, with translations in several languages. They say "There's nothing more powerful as an idea whose time has come." The Movement certainly has momentum, if that counts as power.
More impetus was added to our momentum on November 16, 2005 with an article in SF Gate, the San Francisco Chronicle online by Gregory Dicum: "GREEN Maybe None: Is having a child -- even one -- environmentally destructive?"
The story was picked up by UPI, appearing in many newspapers. Quite a few radio talk shows invited Les to be interviewed and sometimes take calls from listeners. Les was a guest on "FOX News Live With Alan Colmes" radio show on November 29th, 2005. Alan also hosted Les for his past two Earth Day shows, April 27, 2004, and April 22, 2005, receiving calls from across North America.
On December 2, 2005, an MSNBC TV program, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, featured Les in a segment entitled, "Taking on the [Voluntary] Human Extinction Movement" Although Tucker wasn't fully in agreement with VHEMT, his questions allowed the main points to be shared with the audience. A transcript and video may be seen at their site. Tucker's final comment: "I will say, that is the sickest thing I think I've ever heard, but you are one of the cheeriest guests we've ever had. I don't know how to--how the two fit together, but I appreciate you coming on. Thanks a lot."
Believe It or Not! on April 29th, 2005 Ripley's included VHEMT in their syndicated comic.
Selected articles, interviews of Les, mixed reviews, and so on may be seen at: Media Mentions.
A major goal of our web site is to advance the population-awareness movement, which seems to have become stalled, and may have slipped back to where it was 35 years ago. Progressive population awareness groups advocate a one-child average and two maximum, but few, if any, dare to advocate zero procreation. Environmental groups avoid the controversial topic, preferring to work on consequences of our excessive breeding.
Several online forums for sharing and discussing ideas related to voluntary human extinction are available. One for VHEMT Volunteers and Supporters includes over 1,200 subscribers.
Les presented the VHEMT concept at the 22nd annual Public Interest Environmental
Law Conference in Eugene, Oregon March 6th, 2004. The panel also
included Jane Roberts of the 34
Million Friends of UNFPA, and Ramona Rex of the Sierra
Club.
An information table is hosted each year at the University of Oregon School of Law, Knight Hall, for the environmental law conference.
Conference attendees watch Nina Paley's "The Stork".
