Actual headline from NBC News: “Science proves kids are bad for Earth. Morality suggests we stop having them. We need to stop pretending kids don’t have environmental and ethical consequences.”

Ugh.

He compares having children to freeing murderers. Seriously.

If I release a murderer from prison, knowing full well that he intends to kill innocent people, then I bear some responsibility for those deaths — even though the killer is also fully responsible. My having released him doesn’t make him less responsible (he did it!). But his doing it doesn’t eliminate my responsibility either.

Something similar is true, I think, when it comes to having children: Once my daughter is an autonomous agent, she will be responsible for her emissions. But that doesn’t negate my responsibility. Moral responsibility simply isn’t mathematical.

To so many, people are the problem.

Maybe it’s just certain people are the problem. Hmmmm.