Believe It or Not! On April 29th, 2005 Ripley’s included VHEMT in their syndicated comic.
Rooster’s Lindsey Kline favorably presented the VHEMT perspective in detail, including many graphics, on January 25, 2018. “Never have kids and save the Earth, says Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.”
“It’s also a bit short-sighted, Knight points out, ‘we’re not just having children... We’re having adults.’ Knight doesn’t mean to villainize people with kids, of course. “They’re just victims of natalist propaganda,’ he says.”
Virginia Pelley, in Marie Claire, January 29, 2018, included a VHEMT quote in their click bait headlined article, “This Extreme Sect of Vegans Thinks Your Baby Will Destroy the Planet. Meet the anti-natalists, people who believe reproduction is wrong.”
“There are many ways to reduce our ecological footprint, including eating low on the food chain and making wise transportation choices,” says Les Knight, a substitute teacher in Portland, Oregon, and spokesperson for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT). “But all of them pale in comparison to avoiding the creation of a new human with a lifetime of impact.”
Newser
There’s a Legit Group That Wants Humans to Go Extinct
Yes, Les U. Knight wishes you were never born
Arden Dier
Nov 8, 2015
Ever stop and think the planet would be a better place if humans weren’t around? Les U. Knight came to that conclusion long ago, and unlike you, he’s doing something about it. He’s the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, which aims to rid Earth of humans. Sounds like a depressing goal, right? Well, VHEMT (say it as “vehement”) is actually pretty upbeat about the whole thing.
To clarify, the organization’s website notes it doesn’t advocate for suicide, it’s not a suicide cult, and yes, it likes babies. But it also states that the annihilation of humans would give Earth a chance to recover. This idea isn’t exactly new: The Awl points to an overpopulation-minded essay published in 1798. But as the Awl puts it, VHEMT is “the only serious organization committed to peacefully annihilating all of humanity.” As its unofficial motto goes, “May we live long and die out.”
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Thank You For Not Breeding
Les Knight
October 30, 2011
[Examining the consumption vs population debate].
G1 Globo, em São Paulo, Brasil
Cada pessoa nova é um fardo para o planeta, diz movimento da extinção
October 30, 2011
Les U. Knight lidera o Movimento da Extinção Humana Voluntária. Para ele, os seres humanos ameaçam a vida no planeta.
Quo magazine, Mexico
La Plaga Humana
June 2011
Convencido de que la raza humana es nociva para la Tierra, Les Knight solicitó a los 25años que le practicaran la vasectomía. Hoy vive en Portland, Oregon, donde fundó el Movimiento por Extinción Humana Voluntaria (VHEMT por sus siglas en inglés). Él y susadeptos son "vehementes" por la pasión con la que defienden su postura: "Vive una largavida y desaparece”
Vice UK
“This guy wants you dead”
Alex Miller
May 4, 2011
Les Knight wants you dead. Not right now though, he doesn’t want to bury you neck-high in a desert and cover you in honey, or lock you in a septic tank at the bottom of his farm. No, he’s more sociopassive than sociopathic. Les just wants to see you die out quietly and happily of old age; just please try not to leave any kids behind.
[Description of VHEMT leans toward death to fit Viceland’s style. Interview with Les and comments.]
Grist
“Want
to join the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement?”
Lisa Hymas
Jul 19, 2010
[Brief description of VHEMT and an interview with Les. Includes comments.]
The Island Online, Sri Lanka
Nury Vittachi
February 27, 2010
The most intelligent comment came from a Perrier-drinker female at the bar. "The biggest problem that will solve itself is the presence of the most pestilent species on this planet: the human race," she said.
She turned out to be a supporter of the Voluntary Human Extinction Society. Run by a guy called Les U. Knight, this group aims to encourage humans to stop having babies because Earth would be a much nicer place without people.
As soon as humanity vanishes, all the horrors of modern existence, including wars, bombs, torture, crime, High School Musical, Hello Kitty and so on simply vanish.
It all sounds brilliant. Yet there’s got to be something wrong with this argument. I’m just not sure what it is.
The Guardian
“Climate change: calling planet birth”
Family size has become the great unmentionable of the campaign for more
environmentally friendly lifestyles
February 13, 2010
by Oliver Burkeman
Excerpts:
You come across nutty-sounding fringe groups like the Voluntary Human
Extinction Movement, but then you phone its founder, Les Knight—he’s a
supply teacher, based on America’s west coast, and can only talk during
breaks between lessons – only to discover that he isn’t nutty at all, but
in fact rather sane and self-deprecating. (He simply wants people to choose
not to breed. "Eventually we’ll be extinct anyway, but it would be so much
nicer if we phased ourselves out through natural attrition," Knight told me
affably. "You know – the way a company reduces its workforce without firing
anyone.")
...
But the hostility to both childlessness and one-child families explains why
the OPT’s campaign targeting British people is called Stop At Two. (The
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement objects strongly: "Rather than stop at
two, we should stop at once," says Les Knight.)
[Full
article]
G Magazine
“Crowded planet: is
Earth’s population getting too large?”
August 10, 2009
Robin McKie
Excerpt:
The end of man?
Some experts now believe little can be done; others think there is still room
for hope. For Les Knight, however, there is only solution: an end to
humanity. The only solution, Knight says, is to eradicate Homo sapiens, not
through violent means but merely by deciding not to reproduce. Without
billions of protein-hungry, top-of-the-food-chain carnivores devouring the
planet’s resources, other creatures would have a chance. Hence his
establishment in the US of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. “We are
the humanitarian alternative to human disasters,” says Knight. “Each time
a child is prevented then the planet gets another chance to breath.” Knight
spreads his message via the Internet and claims tens of thousands of
followers. Dubbed ‘eco-sexuals’ by the US press, these voluntary
extinction supporters follow the movement’s simple creed: “Live long and
die out”. It is amusing but not that serious an option for humanity. It is
not in any species’ nature to seek its own extinction. Nevertheless,
Knight’s ideas are provocative and do have resonance. “As numbers drop,
the last humans will benefit particularly,” he says. “They will
experience our world as it should be enjoyed—without billions of people on
it.” [Full
article]
Maclean’s magazine
“The case
against having kids”
They can hurt your career, your marriage, your social life, your bank book.
Why bother?
Anne Kingston
July 24, 2009
Excerpt:
Shriver is less righteous about the non-parenting choice, admitting
“‘there is something nihilistic about refusing to reproduce, selfish in
the worst way. She explains:“Take individual fulfillment at the expense of
parenthood to the limit. and one generation has a cracking good time, after
which the entire human race, poof, vanishes from the planet.” (This is, in
fact, precisely the goal of the most extreme childlessness advocates out
there: the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, which says, “The hopeful
alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is
the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens... us.”) [Full article]
650+ Comments!
Living
“Baby
Boom to Bust”
Jo-ann Hodgson
June 16, 2009
“The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) believes that ‘phasing
out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s
biosphere to return to good health’, and point to Chernobyl as an example
of an ecosystem recovering when abandoned by humans. “Most of us are aware
on some level that there are more of us than Earth can support, and evidence
is becoming increasingly hard to ignore,” Les U. Knight from VHEMT told
More Than Living. “The connections between quality of life and quantity of
humanity surround us.” Knight is hopeful that with the support of household
names such as Attenborough, individual awareness of the “overpopulation”
issue will spread, providing the first step to social change. “Government
policies always lag behind social evolution, particularly with
emotionally-charged issues, and social traditions lag behind changes in the
real world,” he said. “Individual awareness, however, often leaps ahead
when the right information comes along at the right time.” “If all
couples would just think before they breed, fertility rates would be greatly
improved. Most of us have never considered not breeding. Before sentencing a
new human to life, a couple could consider what environmental conditions will
be for the next 80 years.”
Vice Magazine
“Extinction
is the Key to Survival”
February 2, 2009
Darby Buick
[Quotes are rough equivalents. Accompanying photo is a Church of Euthanasia
rally and a huge banner: “Save the planet kill yourself.” No caption, so
readers must assume it’s a VHEMT rally. My suggestion of reintroducing
predators was only to counter Darby’s hunting humans suggestion: not a
serious plan.]
The Guardian
“Am
I fit to breed?”
December 28, 2008
Guy Dammann
“Whether the world needs more children is a tough question. Whether the
world is worthy of one’s own children is harder still. VHMENT [sic] is an
acronym for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, brainchild of one Les U
Knight. The followers of this movement take to its logical conclusion the
observation that the population growth of the human species is unsustainable.
Rather than waiting for nature to extinguish us by itself, which process will
almost inevitably involve the destruction of many other species besides, we
should initiate proceedings ourselves by refusing to have any more
children.”
CBC.com
“VHEMT:
The case against humans”
September 4, 2008
Eve Savory
[Concept of voluntary human extinction fairly presented.]
WorldNetDaily
May 11, 2008
Chelsea Schilling
ENVIRONETDAILY
“Wanna
help planet? ‘Let’s all just die!’”
Group pushes to improve Earth’s ecosystem by ensuring human species
does not survive”
[The headline is only the first of many distortions. Don’t click on links:
almost all are ads.]
Green Anarchy: An Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and Action
Spring/Summer 2008 [This was the last issue, unfortunately, and no publication or website has replaced it.]
Felonious Skunk
“Thank You For Not Breeding and Voluntary
Human Extinction”
[Harsh critique of VHEMT and an unpublished reply from Les.]
Eugene Weekly
“Don’t Save
the Humans”
Voluntary human extinction is alive and well
March 13, 2008
Eva Sylwester
"Les U. Knight... staffed the table for the Voluntary Human Extinction
Movement (VHEMT, pronounced "vehement") and spoke at a Sunday morning panel
discussion on ’Human Population Density: Patriarchy’s Influence, Positive
Signs, and Reproductive Freedom.’" [Interview follows].
The Guradian
“No
more babies, please”
November 24, 2007
Abby O’Reilly
“Humans are breeding with persistent determination and it’s giving me a headache. Wouldn’t the earth be better
off without us?
G Magazine
“A pregnant pause”
Sept/Oct 2007
Les U. Knight
[“The Green Lifestyle Magazine” published Les’ opinion piece about VHEMT.]
CNN.com
“Earth
a gracious host to billions, but can she take many more?”
5 October 2007
Kristi Keck
[VHEMT perspective contrasted with cornucopian.]
“... Richman says one of those eight children in the Lehmanns’ suburban
Chicago home may be the answer to any of the problems the Earth faces.
‘In that group, there may be the next great musician, great poet, great
novelist, who the heck knows?’ he said. ‘People are not a problem. People
solve problems.’” [I bet Richman plays the lottery].
The Review (University of Delaware)
“Green
to the extreme”
Org. promotes human extinction for environmental benefits
September 21, 2007
Jennifer Heine
Eliminating people, instead of recycling and cutting back on carbon
emissions, is one movement’s way to “go green.” The Voluntary Human
Extinction Movement believes the world would be better off if humans stopped
breeding and became extinct.
Les Knight, the founder of the movement, stated in an e-mail message his
movement has one fundamental goal: “the extinction of Homo sapiens by
voluntary non-breeding.”
The Harvard Independent
Going off the Deep End
Francis Martel
September 20, 2007
The typically docile fringe of the [environmental] movement has chosen to go out with a bang, however, by hammering the last nail into its own coffin via the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. VHEMT (pronounced “vehement”—how clever!) calls for its members to remain childless, arguing that the damage human beings cause to the environment is so great that the world would be a much better place without us. Founder Les U. Knight—again, so clever I don’t know whether to laugh or cry—might be one of the more moderate members of the American extinction crew; he proposes it should be completely voluntary and occur within a time frame that is appropriate, while colleagues like author Alan Weisman propose the Chinese solution: a governmental mandate to prohibit families from having more than one child.
“Let’s unite in peace and love and not make any more kids,” sounds like a great idea for Starbucks poets and basket weavers from sea to shining sea, but it might take the more sensible populace of the United States a little time to warm up to the idea. Little thought was given to how Knight’s explanation that “as long as there’s one breeding pair of homo sapiens, there’s too great a threat to the biosphere,” would play in the mainstream. Moreover, how the already low-fertility American population would be able to offset population gains elsewhere in the world remains shrouded in mystery. Given that the population growth in this country relies as heavily on immigration as it does on births, it seems unlikely that VHEMT will find an audience even among the darkest fringes of the green movement. Full article.
Macleans
“Please
refrain from procreating”
The fastest way to a greener planet? Some think a ban on procreation is
simplest and best
Brian Bethune
August 6, 2007
That the planet is in environmental crisis is a truth(almost)universally
recognized, but the nature of the crisis doesn’t command nearly the same
unanimity. Is it because our activities now threaten our survival, or because
the weight of humanity—all 6.5 billion planet-eating, carbon-spewing
individuals—lies too heavily upon the rest of what was once known as
creation? Those who express the latter view are often dismissed, sometimes
maliciously, as being anti-human, madmen who regard the fate of Amazonian
butterflies or Arctic bears as having the same moral value as human life.
Mostly such accusations are baseless—you don’t have to hate humanity to
value the rest of nature—but there are, in fact, a lot of people who think
the most useful thing humanity could do is disappear, in whole or in
part...
In Oregon, America’s only euthanasia-friendly state, schoolteacher Les
Knight, head of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, makes it all sound
perfectly idyllic. Talking to Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
(HarperCollins)-- a marvellous projection of what life would be like on a
human-free earth—Knight describes what he sees as the best path to the
inevitable. Brutal resource wars, starvation and epidemics are going to mow
us down anyway, as our growing numbers come up against the world’s finite
resources. So much the better that we should “all agree to stop
procreating.” Abortion providers going out of business would be the first
happy result, in Knight’s opinion. Soon, “there would be no more children
under five dying horribly. In 21 years, there would be, by definition, no
juvenile delinquency.” There would finally be enough to eat, even while
nature was staging a recovery from our depredations; with nothing to fight
over, war would end. “The last humans could enjoy their final sunsets
peacefully, knowing they have returned the planet as close as possible to the
Garden of Eden.”
The logic is as absurd as it’s unassailable. Yes, indeed, if there are no
more children, there will be no more child tragedies. Or child triumphs, for
that matter, or much reason to think childless humanity will spend its dying
days as serenely as Knight predicts. In The Children of Men, P. D. James’s
scarifying 1992 dystopia, the dispiriting consequences of mass infertility(a
collective loss of the will to live) are far more believably depicted.
Yet, as Weisman notes, Knight’s lament does catch some of “the weariness
that genuinely humane beings feel as they witness the collapse of much
biology and beauty.” That’s why Weisman has another suggestion, one
“poignant and distressing, but not fatal”: limit every human female on
earth to one child only. The math suddenly turns positive... [Full
article]
Sydney Morning Herald
“At
World’s End”
June 6, 2007
Charles Purcell
[Short Q & A about VHEMT.]
The Independent [UK]
“How
to save the planet”
April 19, 2007
According to some eco-extremists, the only way to really make a difference is
to stop breeding and let the human race die out. Guy Adams reports. [Guy
plays loosely with facts and quotes]
“Close your eyes and imagine that it‘s the year 3000. For the first time
since the dinosaurs, large animals rule Planet Earth. In the ruins of its
former civilisation, a forlorn species called mankind finds itself marooned
on the brink of extinction.”
Daily Telegraph
“Beware
the Ecosexual”
December 20, 2006
[Australian writer complains that if you’re not green enough these days,
you won’t find romance].
“But while being ecosmart may ‘turn on’ the ecosexual, don’t presume
that slipping between the allergy-free sheets with one will mean happy ever
after with loads of children.
Oh no, because if you truly live by the Three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle)
you should also belong to the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, a group of
people dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the health
of the Earth.
I kid you not. They exist and their slogan is ‘May We Live Long and Die
Out’ (apologies for not knowing the Latin translation).
To think I have been congratulating myself for separating my rubbish.”
“Why
Have Kids?”
October 18, 2006
My first reaction upon contemplating the foregoing notions was: “Whoa!
These folks are out to lunch. There are millions of people like myself who
have been working hard to make sure the human race continues. . . Why else am
I and others putting so much energy into doing the things we do, other than
to propagate our species?” But Vehement’s ideas rapidly sprouted roots in
my brain and refused to let go.
Utne Reader
[USA]
May/June 2006
“Quit Screwing Around”
“In terms of energy usage alone, (which is) a convenient measure of
environmental impact, the average Ethiopian uses one-310th of what we use. So
when an American couple stops at two kids, it’s like an Ethiopian couple
stopping at 620.”
-Les Knight, founder, Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, SFGate.com (Nov.
16, 2005)
[We should “quit screwing around” when it comes to contraceptives, but we
sure don’t have to quit screwing to quit breeding as the headline might
imply.]
North
Jersey Herald News
March 12, 2006
Tim Norris
“Population
overload”
He might have hoped for 10-foot letters on the
Astrovision in Times Square, flash-dancing HUMANKIND SWELLS TO 6.5 BILLION.
Instead, Les U. Knight found only a gentle cascade of e-mails, a few network
squawks and a blurb in the occasional newspaper and on-line blog.
Near the instant on Feb. 25 when zeroes locked into the 6.5 billion benchmark
on the world’s population clocks, Knight was carrying his Voluntary Human
Extinction message to an environmental conference in Oregon and fighting a
familiar disappointment. [Quotes from Les are not very accurate, but close
enough for journalism.]
The New Oxford Review
February 2006 issue
“Voluntary
Human Extinction”
According to the San Francisco Chronicle (Nov. 16), the Voluntary Human
Extinction Movement (VHEMT, pronounced “vehement”) is dedicated to
phasing out the human race so that the Earth’s biosphere might return to
good health. VHEMT founder Les U. Knight, who had a vasectomy at age 25, told
the Chronicle that “Wherever humans live, not much else lives.” His
solution is a simple one: Every man and woman should “voluntarily cease to
breed” -- that means, of course, sterilization, abortion, contraception,
and sometimes infanticide. VHEMT’s motto: “May we live long and die out.
Thank you for not breeding.” [Abortion and infanticide? Sterilization and
contraception prevent abortion, and infanticide requires breeding—thank you
for not doing so. Turns out they are “championing the cause of orthodox,
traditional Catholicism!” Some distortion of the truth may be expected for
the cause.]
La Stampa
Torino, Italy
January 31, 2006
[Translation from Italian. Quotes aren’t really from Les, but who’s gonna
know?]
Man, extinguish yourself, for the good of the Earth (Paolo Matrolilli)
NEW YORK. Dear humans, stop reproducing. For the good of the Earth you must
convince yourselves that the optimal solution is the voluntary extinction of
your genus. The advice, rather, the heartfelt solicitation comes from the
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (Vhemt), a movement founded in Oregon.
All will have heard of the fiery debate about the population of our planet. A
group says there are too many of us and that we must slow down the birth
rate, another group says that the alarm is exaggerated and it is only a
problem of better distribution of people and resources. Behind all this there
are massive economic interests that complicate the discussion. To one group
belong organizations that favor birth control and support abortion. The other
group includes large religious institutions such as the Catholic Church. The
Vhemt attempts to go beyond the two blocks, promoting the voluntary
extinction of the human race for the common good.
The founder, Les Knight, maintains that we are hurtful to the universe.
Wherever we appear, the environment and other species begin to suffer. “It
is not that we are constitutionally bad. We consume resources and destroy
life”. Environmentalists’ efforts to make our species less lethal are
moving but useless, because in any event we will continue to annihilate
nature with our exponential growth.
Apart from a few tribes of long ago and lost in the darkness of time, no
human aggregation was able to organize a sustainable system of living. The
only way out is extinction. The (Vhemt) movement does not advocate suicide.
Its slogan is “Let us live a long life and disappear”. Its strategy,
however, is to convince all humans to stop reproducing, as there are no
reasons for continuing to do so.
Knight has an answer for those who point out that even humans are part of
nature—therefore every environmentalist would have the duty to preserve
them, just like the other animals. Knight responds with the data on the
destruction carried out by humans on the earth. “Our presence on earth has
already brought many species to extinction. Given this it is difficult to
maintain that we live in harmony with nature”. Still, the founder of Vhemt
is a realist. “I do not think we will succeed in convincing all humans to
carry out this supreme act of generosity towards our planet. But this does
not mean it is not the right cause, for which we will continue to
fight.”
The Herald
Glasgow, Scotland
“We want to make children extinct” [reads the huge headline. Just
children, mind you, not adults.]
December 6, 2005 [Not available online]
“Every hour, 16,000 babies are born. But one organisation wants to put a
stop to it. And its members are willing to go to bizarre extremes to get
their way. Gregory Dicum speaks to the founder, while Lorna MacLaren talks to
members.” [The “bizarre extremes” we are willing to go to? They
didn’t say, but I assume they mean vasectomies. This is a reprint of the
November 16th San Francisco Chronicle article with interviews,excerpted
below, as a side bar.]
“May we live long and die out” is a motto that even some followers of the
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement find extreme. Rodney Marsh, 41
(pictured), has been interested in the global population boom for many years.
When he saw the VHEMT website during an internet search he was immediately
drawn. “It’s a subject people don’t want to talk about yet it affects
us all,” says the electrician from his home in Sussex.
“Modern culture is about living for today without any thought for the
consequences. However, statistics for global warming, population growth, food
production and pollution add up to a pretty gloomy picture for the future.
That is why I chose not to have children.”
He has considered having a vasectomy, and would have had one long ago but for
his reservations about surgery. Marsh admits he is not entirely comfortable
with the “extinction” element of the VHEMT message. “It makes us sound
like some kind of extreme suicide group,” he says. “I think people are on
the planet for a reason and I have enough optimism to hope that the decline
may be reversed if we do something soon.”
Jason Reynolds, of Oregon, US, hopes the existence of the VHEMT group at
least brings the population debate out for discussion. He is committed to
easing the pressure on the planet caused by humanity and had a vasectomy aged
29.
“I saw a bumper sticker for the group and thought it was a joke. After
checking online I realised how much of a reality it was and how it had the
potential to snowball into something more important than many people give it
credit for.
“I think humanity is reaching a critical junction that requires behaviour
modification.”
The State Hornet Sacramento State
Sacramento, California
“Take
care of Mother Earth, cut down on giving birth”
November 30, 2005
Jen White
Like me, Les Knight, founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, is
exhausted as well.
“We can’t be breeding right now,” Knight told the San Francisco
Chronicle. “It’s obvious that the intentional creation of another (human
being) can’t be justified by anyone anywhere today, because wherever humans
live not much else lives.”
I imagine that Mr. Knight (who, by the way, got a vasectomy when he was 25)
is also a vegan, does not drive or drives an electric vehicle, uses purely
solar or wind powered energy, recycles, reuses and reduces, and has a
beautiful garden.
His solution to global problems is also more extreme than most of us probably
consider but, crazy or not, Knight certainly has a valid point.
The Daily Record
Glasgow, Scotland
OFF
THE RECORD
November 22, 2005
Pat Roller
IF you thought the Monster Raving Loonies were the weirdest pressure group on
the planet, think again.
From America - in fact, from California, where else? - ? - comes news of a
gang calling themselves the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. . .
Can’t help thinking that the kind of people who would join a voluntary
extinction movement are the kind of people who wouldn’t have been doing
much breeding in the normal course of affairs anyway.
[Damn right we wouldn’t. It’s even more foolish to breed when having
affairs, normal or otherwise.]
United Press International
Various newspapers (Online version unavailable)
Nov 17, 2005
“Group Wants to See Humans Extinct” [That would be pretty difficult to
do.]
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17 (UPI)—Make no mistake about it, the Voluntary Human
Extinction Movement isn’t anti-child, it’s more like anti-human.
The VHE is dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the
health of the Earth, founder Les Knight told Wednesday’s San Francisco
Chronicle.
With 16,000 people born per hour and a current global population of 6.5
billion, there are already more than enough people on the planet, Knight
said.
A 1994 study concluded a single person born in the 1990s would be responsible
during a lifetime for 22 million pounds of liquid waste and 2.2 million
pounds each of solid waste and atmospheric waste, the newspaper said. He or
she will have a lifetime consumption of 4,000 barrels of oil, 1.5 million
pounds of minerals and 62,000 pounds of animal products that will necessitate
the slaughter of 2,000 animals.
‘Wherever humans live, not much else lives,’ Knight said. ‘It isn’t
that we’re evil and want to kill everything—it’s just how we
live.’
Knight, who had a vasectomy at age 25, emphasizes VHE likes kids and says
many of its members are parents as well as children.
SF Gate San Francisco Chronicle
online
“GREEN
Maybe None: Is having a child—even one—environmentally
destructive?”
November 16, 2005
Gregory Dicum
[The following excerpt has been dropped from the article. Emphasis added]:
Like most environmentalists—even most Americans—the Brunes have taken
steps to reduce their environmental impact.
“We certainly do as much as we can to limit our consumption,” says Mike
Brune. “We made sure we live near mass transit. We have one of the new
Priuses. We buy organic food almost exclusively. We feel that it’s very
important to connect our personal values to all aspects of how we live: where
we work, what we eat, what we buy.”
But when, after six and a half years of marriage, it came time for the couple
to consider a child, those strong personal values came up against an even
stronger drive.
“I understand rationally the argument for not having children—I can see
the point,” says Mary Brune, a technical writer and, since becoming a
mother, co-founder of Making Our Milk Safe, an organization that monitors
industrial toxins in human milk.
“I’ve talked to friends who have made certain that they can’t have
children so they don’t bring another person into the world,” she
continues. “But for us there’s a real primal need to have a child. For
me, personally, I had a desire to bear my own child.”
So they went for it: Their daughter Olivia is now 15 months old.
At RAN [Rainforest Action Network], Mike
Brune works to transform some of the most powerful elements of our society,
going after oil companies and banks to change the way they do business. He
says that for him this kind of big-picture environmentalism doesn’t
translate to the personal decision of whether to have a child.
“The goal here isn’t for Safeway to have one aisle of organic
food—it’s to get to a point where all food is produced in a healthy
way,” he says. “The same would be true of hybrid cars: We don’t want
Ford Motor Co. to just have a few hybrid vehicles, we want to have every
vehicle nonpolluting.” For Mike Brune, the choice to have a child is a
personal, emotional one that sits apart from the systemic change he’s
working for.
Ma’ariv Israel
August 26, 2005
Noa Yedlin
Four-page in-depth look at The Movement
Hebrew languange only
Portland Mercury
“It
sure is a scientific world—Voluntary extinction”
Aug 16 - Aug 22, 2001
John Dooley
“I’m busy thinking about the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
(www.VHEMT.org), and what I can do to survive their arcane visionary tactics.
They want me to die. They want you to die too! They want everyone to die.
It’s horrible!”
[John must have missed the first statement on the VHEMT site. Fortunately, an
astute reader set him straight.]
TO THE MERCURY: You’re weaving a web of drivel and misinformation... Incorrectly, Mr. Dooley whines about VHEMT, "They want me to die. They want you to die too." Does Dooley have his paranoid head up his ass or what? In fact, one of VHEMT’s mottos is "May we live long and die out." It doesn’t take a rocket scientist wanna-be to figure out we are a species out of control and should consider not procreating, as there are a few billion too many of us already. What part of “voluntary” do you not understand? Bottom line: they want you to voluntarily not procreate.
R.S. Foster
Montreal Mirror
“I,
Single Mum”
Juliet Waters
March 15, 2001
[A former VHEMTer tells of her conversion and diversion. Juliet’s experience
serves as a lesson to all VHEMTers: get fixed while you’re still sane!]
National Review
“PETA
Puts Rats First & People Last”
June 22, 2000 Guest Opinion
Deroy Murdock
[Mentions VHEMT to show depth of “America’s descent into madness.”]
No Compromise No. 4
“The Most Neglected Animal Rights Issue”
Unfortunately the problem of human overpopulation does not stop at humanity’s boarder, it also plays havoc on animals and the environment. On a basic level, the more people there are, the more people there will be to eat meat, wear fur, go to circuses and rodeos, hunt and demand animal research. It wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to figure that if America’s population was half its current size, the number of animals slaughtered for food would also be halved. If this were the case, more than 3 billion animals per year would be spared the horrors of factory farming and the slaughterhouse.
[The lower right painting is of “Saint Les the extinct”—my favorite portrait. Jack’s other “saints” were: John who fished without hooks so he never really caught one, Ken, who repented of his youthful habit of sticking bolts in rocks for climbing and went back to cut them off, and Saint Kathy of the compost.]
New York Times Magazine
March 19, 1995
Independent on Sunday (UK)
“Live long and die out” (Not available online yet.)
April 24, 1994 p. 22
Stephen Jarvis
[Positive presentation of the concept of VHEMT.]
Reader’s Digest
April 1992
Shortened from the New Age Journal article.
The World Without
Us
Alan Weisman
St. Martin’s Press 2007 Buy
it.
Fascinating reading even if you don’t think humans should disappear
completely from Earth. Thoroughly researched with testimony from experts
clearly translated into understandable descriptions. Includes a couple of pages about VHEMT and a reasonable suggestion
for improving human population density.
Listen to an interview of Alan Weisman by Ira Flatow on NPR’s
Science Friday September 7, 2007.
In the Clear: A
Worldview in Essays
Day of 6 Billion
Brian Julian
McKinleyville Press 2001
The
Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action
Wendy Northcutt
Plume Books 2000
Chapter 4: The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement’s motto is “May we live long and die out.” They encourage a radical alternative to our callous extinction of plants and animals. “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.” The philosophies of abstinence held by these three groups [Shakers, Heaven’s Gate, VHEMT] guarantee that “the gene stops here.” In summary, groups that insist upon celibacy will die off without an effective way of recruiting new converts. And even those celibate groups that manage to expand their ranks will logically eliminate themselves once they reach the hypothetical pinnacle of success: recruitment of the entire human race. These sorts of groups are eligible for a Darwin Award. Catholic priests, homosexuals who manage to reproduce despite their sexual preferences, and similar groups can theoretically exist eternally, and are not eligible for this notorious award.In a sense, we are advocating “abstinence” but not from sexual activity, just from breeding. This distinction isn’t relevant to a group Darwin Award, but our “effective way of recruiting new converts” disqualifies VHEMT.
Deep
Environmental Politics: The Role of Radical Environmentalism in Crafting
American Environmental Policy
Phillip F. Cramer
Praeger 1998
Pagan
Kennedy’s Living: the handbook for maturing hipsters
Pagan Kennedy
St. Martins 1997
Kooks:
A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief
Donna Kossy
Feral House 1994
VHEMT’s pages in
book
“The Heretic”
Dolan Cummings
8 February 2011
Two new plays show that climate change is better understood as a moral issue rather than a scientific one.
...The Heretic is not so much the scientific controversy as the cultural, even psychological context in which it unfolds. As representatives of contemporary youth, both Ben and Phoebe are frankly pretty fucked up. Phoebe is dangerously anorexic, while Ben also has a dysfunctional relationship with food, though on environmentalist grounds (he does eat plenty of garlic, to reduce his personal ‘carbon emissions’); similar qualms keep him from enjoying fossil fuel-derived heat and transport. The two also share a hostility to the idea of having children—Ben is a member of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. It seems pretty clear that it is their negative attitudes to humanity in general and themselves in particular that explain their attraction to environmentalist thinking, rather than the former being derived from a sober consideration of humanity’s effect on the world.
English:
Sadwrn
October 25, 2011
“Sadwrn is a multilingual publication on speculation, poetry, philosophy, onirism, the city, speculative fiction, comics, futurism and more.”
Open the magazine and click on “And now let’s listen to VHEMT’s Les U. Knight.”
Follow-up to Chadwick’s August 5th interview of Les with opinions from Yale and Princeton professors.
August 12, 2010
French:
Elekore
“Voluntary
Human Extinction”
CD 2007
Scorpions
“Humanity” From Humanity Hour 1
May 25, 2007
Humanity
Auf wiedersehen
It’s time to say goodbye
The party’s over
As the laughter dies
An angel cries
Humanity
It’s au revoir to your insanity
You sold your soul to feed your vanity
Your fantasies and lies
You’re a drop in the rain
Just a number not a name
And you don’t see it
You don’t believe it
At the end of the day
You’re a needle in the hay
You signed and sealed it
And now you gotta deal with it
Humanity
Humanity
Goodbye
Goodbye
Be on your way
Adios amigo there’s a price to pay
For all the egotistic games you played
The world you made
Is gone
You’re a drop in the rain
Just a number not a name
And you don’t see it
You don’t believe it
At the end of the day
You’re a needle in the hay
You signed and sealed it
And now you gotta deal with it
Humanity
Humanity
Goodbye
Goodbye
Run and hide there’s fire in the sky
Stay inside
The water’s gonna rise and pull you under
In your eyes I’m staring at the end of time
Nothing can change us
No one can save us from ourselves
You’re a drop in the rain
Just a number not a name
And you don’t see it
You don’t believe it
At the end of the day
You’re a needle in the hay
You signed and sealed it
Now you gotta deal with it
Humanity
Humanity
Humanity
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Black Blood Productions
presents:
Gosforth
VHEMT
CD September 2004
“Don’t expect anything more than traditional raw black metal
exclusively!”
Voluntary Human Extinction MovemenT
April 10, 1997
Fuck this stupid fuckin shit
This world is ours and this is it
We’ve overrun the sea and land
Our neverending master plan
Eleven billion empty souls
Are breeding way out of control
Time for Violent Retribution
Human Extinction: The Only Solution
More people always means less freedom
How the fuck you gonna feed ‘em
Livestock eating all our grain
While billions starve on desert plains
Cannibalism, Soylent Green
Becoming less and less obscene
Time for Violent Retribution
Human Extinction: The Only Solution
Cities choking out the Sky
Forests Wither out and Die
Man, the King of All He Sees
Bringing Nature to its Knees
Countless corpses slick with oil
Bring the Oceans to a boil
Time for Violent Retribution
Human Extinction: The Only Solution
The Story’s over, this is the End
Never shall we rise again
We’ve tamed the Earth, made it our slave
Now we share a common grave
Destroyed it all, now it’s our turn
Time to Die, Time to Burn
Time for violent retribution
Human Extinction: The Only Solution
[Punk bands often insist on rude awakenings. VHEMT shares Iconicide’s vision of no humans, but not their call for involuntary means.]
Death Hangout, a podcast about life, produced an entertaining 27 minute interview about VHEMT on September 28, 2019. See it on YouTube: “May We Live Long And Die Out with Les Knight”
Red State Revolt Radio’s Mark Faulk hosted Les Knight on his June 16th, 2019 internet radio show. The conversation included voluntary human extinction and additional actions we might take to ameliorate our impacts on Earth’s biosphere and humanity. You can download the podcast. MP3
A six minute interview of Les Knight by Micro gives a quick overview of VHEMT. Soundcloud
Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio’s Patricia Karvelas, host of RN Drive spoke with Les for six and a half minutes on July 18, 2018. MP3
The radio spot generated an article by Simon Leo Brown and Barbara Heggen on Aug 4, 2018.
“The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement wants you to rethink having children. If you announce on Facebook that you’re having a baby, don’t expect Les Knight to be among the well-wishers. The self-described ‘finder’ of the provocatively-named Voluntary Human Extinction Movement—or VHEMT (pronounced ‘vehement’) — says congratulating people on a pregnancy is an example of ‘natalist propaganda.’”
Kevin Stewart, a VHEMT Supporter in Edmonton, Alberta, was interviewed in April 2004 on CJSR FM 88 by Chris Samuel. Listen to Kevin’s interview on Gaywire
VHEMT is only mentioned in this talk by Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us, but it’s a pivotal aspect of the plan he outlines. Sponsored by The Long Now Foundation February 10, 2010.
*Sounds Like an Earful
Nov 4, 2014 33:38 minutes.
“This week we debate whether or not having kids is a good idea. We talk to the founder of The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement about his beliefs that, for the betterment of the planet, all human beings should stop procreating until the species is extinct. We talk to a pastor who had an affair that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. We talk to a mother about just how much fun it is to raise a tiny little person. Also, Colleen wants to ‘pop out’ so many babies before she ‘dries up’. It’s a big episode this week. Enjoy!”
*The Species Barrier #21 Vegan Outreach
May 15, 2013
Interview includes “Joyce Johnson Producer of the documentary, Mother: Caring For Seven Billion.
We receive other perspectives on population issues from Les U. Knight founder of The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) and British population activist Terry Grigg.”
TJ Trout
94 Rock Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 2, 2010
Three morning show hosts and Les talked about breeding, reproductive freedom,
and their choices. TJ called himself a Supporter, and insisted I send a VHEMT T-shirt.
Laura Ingraham
April 21, 2009
My invitation was likely intended to show how extreme environmentalists can
be, in preparation for her main guest: Steven Milloy, author of Green
Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Ruin Your Life and What You Can Do to
Stop Them. No, it’s not a parody.
Curtis
Sliwa
WABC
February 3, 2009
Curtis was much more accepting of the concept than he was when we talked on “Hannity and
Colmes” TV show in 2001. Unfortunately, the broadcast wasn’t archived, perhaps because he had threatened his previous guest, discredited former Illinois governor Blagojevich, with a “beat down” if allegations of his stealing from a charity that Curtis supported were true.
Alan
Colmes
FOX News Talk With Alan Colmes
New York City
April 27, 2004 Earth Day
April 22, 2005 Earth Day
November 29, 2005
*February 2, 2009 You can listen to the podcast but you have to pay
for it. Alan has become more amenable to the VHEMT concept over the years.
*The PK and J Show Podcast
August, 2008
I recommend skipping the first one third after downloading so you go right to
where I answer the phone. Agreeable hosts.
*The Recovery
Zone
Stephanie Potter
KBOO Portland Oregon
July 3, 2008
You can listen to the archived half hour program, which includes callers.
WMUZ “The Light”
103.5FM
Detroit, Michigan
June 7th, 2008
Although host Bob “fearlessly defending the faith” Dutko didn’t seem
to agree with much of what I had to say, we had a pleasant conversation. You
can read about Bob’s ministry at the WMUZ website.
*Alex Jones
Austin, Texas
May 18, 2008
Please go to Videos to listen to this broadcast.
NewsRadio 1020
KDKA
Pittsburgh, PA
May 13, 2008
John
Steigerwald
Newstalk 1010 CFRB
Toronto, Ontario
April 21. 2008
Richard Syrett
RTE 2fm
Dublin, Ireland
August 28, 2007
Rick O’Shea meets Les U. Knight: we got together and bounced ideas off each
other.
Montreal’s Greatest
Hits
Montreal, Quebec
May 9, 2007
Show hosted by Joe Cannon because regular host was on maternity leave. Now an
oldies station.
Paul and Phil
KFBK/KSTE Sacramento,
California|
December 2, 2005
Neither Paul nor Phil liked the idea of not breeding, but I wasn’t
surprised: they have seven offspring between them. They spent 20 minutes
poking holes in the concept and I did my best to plug them. Good practice for
the interview with Tucker Carlson an hour later.
The Weasel WJFX
New Haven Indiana
December 2, 2005
A Hip Hop station where most of the DJs have nicknames. I was expecting
Spitfire, but The Weasel interviewed me with reasonable questions and no
arguments.
Archer and Mike
KQMT Boulder, Colorado
November 28, 2005
It was a fun exchange, geared to light-hearted morning show format.
Luke Grant
2HD
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
November 24, 2005
We entertained early morning listeners with pleasantries about Thanksgiving,
which they don’t have, and human extinction, which is on its way, voluntary
or not.
Darian
O’Toole
KIFR San Francisco, California
November 23, 2005
A quick five minutes hitting the major points. Sadly, Darian passed away in
2008.
Rob
Breakenridge The World Tonight
CHQR Calgary, Alberta
November 22, 2005
We talked for 20 minutes and I was more careful about word choices after Dori
Monson’s show earlier in the day. A caller afterward said that Satan was
distracting me, I was distracting others, and we would all have a fall on
judgement day.
Dori
Monson
KIRO Seattle, Washington
November 22, 2005
Dori didn’t like the concept from the beginning. Maybe it had something to
do with his three daughters. He’s a serious host and I wasn’t successful
in trying to lighten things up. The callers didn’t help in that regard.
Gene told us that we only have five billion years and all life will go—just
to keep things in perspective. Jason is Wiccan and his temple demands that
all followers produce at least one biological offspring, so he was offended
by my suggesting we not breed. Weldon and I got into a semantical loop when
he suggested that everything is natural and I said we could then get rid of
the word “artificial”. Jeremy agreed because we’ll go involuntarily if
we don’t go voluntarily. Maurene was offended in the same way that Jason
was, though she’s Christian with offspring. Dori ended our segment with an aside, “I wish someone had extincted
me an hour ago.”
David Gold
KSFO San Francisco, California
Movember19, 2005
David was a respectful host, allowing me to present the concept without
interruption or disagreement.
Ray called to suggest that I kill myself. Michael said that no one would
carry on the message if we don’t breed. Gary said that other countries were
breeding way worse. Tom reminded us that God told us to be fruitful and
multiply, and that it was good that people like me weren’t breeding because
then there would be more normal people.
Mike and Lisa Morning Drive
CKLWWindsor, Ontario & Detroit, Michigan
November 17, 2005
John Ziegler
KFI Los Angeles, California
November 16, 2005
Jim Richards
CFRB Toronto, Ontario
November 16, 2005
The Hideout
WTKS Orlando Florida
November 4, 2005
I think the two guys were Jefe and J-Dubs. It seemed to be going well but I
must have said the wrong thing because one of them said, “Les, I hate you.
Beat it!” and I was off the air. Pretty funny. They offer an opportunity to
vote for women as “Hottie or Hideous,” and provide exposure for women who
can’t afford very much clothing with their “Babe of the Day”
feature.
Charlie Wolf Cork Talks
Back
TalkSPORT
Cork, Ireland
July 4, 2004
*Kyle Varner
The Political Fire
December 15th, 2001
Audio
archive of program Mp3 #42
Kyle is an adherant to Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy, so it was a
challenge to explain Earth-centered philosophy.
Victor Boc
KUGN Eugene, Oregon
March 24, 1998 & June 23, 1999
KPAM Portland, Oregon
September 30, 2000
Roger Wendell
Connections
KGNU Boulder, Colorado
August 25, 2000
ResponseRoger
Wendell’s program above
Kim Hill
Nine to Noon
National Radio New Zealand
February 21, 2000
Kim stated that New Zealand had reached population stabilization, and I was
caught with my statistics down, so I couldn’t correct this misconception.
Darlene Heidimann
CKNW Vancouver, BC
December 27, 1998
Tom Clark Ideas Network
Wisconsin Public Radio
March 5, 1998
Tom was an intellectual host, asking probing and relavant questions. I wish
this one was in the archives. The last caller said that I was one of these
people who goes around the country pulling off hoaxes—that my name, Les
Knight meant that there would be less night. “How about it, Les, is VHEMT
just a hoax?” “Is VHEMT a hoax? I wonder if the whole human race is a
hoax.” “Yes, but that doesn’t answer the question.” “No, it
doesn’t.” “Arrg. Get outta here,” he joked. “Have we been had?”
Lots of visitors to the website from Wisconsin that day, trying to find out.
Barbara Myers Outlook
BBC World Service
June 8, 1994
Mike Wahlbacker Earth Talk
WHYY Philadelphia, PA
September 9, 1992
My first major radio interview. Mike understood the concept, having read
These EXIT Times number two, and asked questions which
brought out the important issues.
Forum of the Future. November 7, 2017
Oberlin College and Conservatory February 16, 2010
“Human Population Density: Patriarchy’s Influence, Positive Signs, and Reproductive Freedom.” at the 26th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Oregon March 9th, 2008. The panel also included Kelpie Wilson, Environmental Editor for TruthOut and author of Primal Tears, and Richard York, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon and a co-editor of the journal Organization and Environment.
Focus
Earth
Discovery Channel
*“No
More Children” 3:37 minute video
September 5, 2009
On April 8, 2010, French TV, Global Arte, broadcast a 2:16 minute anti-natalist, pro-planet video which included VHEMT. (in French) “Les anti-natalité font leur buzz”
*“Il Pianeta si sta davvero estinguendo?”
Rome, Italy
March 22, 2009
Intervista di Les U. Knight al programma “Tatami” (in Italian)
Summary
of show
Weekend
Sunrise
Sydney, Australia
June 1, 2008
Fluffy morning show. Asked if I was for real. “Of course I’m real, I’m
on TV.” It was also surreal as all I saw was a lens and a bank of lights.
They asked if VHEMT is a cult and couldn’t quite place us.
*Prison Planet
Alex Jones
May 18, 2008
*MSNBC
The Situation with Tucker
Carlson (No longer on the air).
“Taking on the [Voluntary]
Human Extinction Movement”
December 2, 2005
Tucker didn’t seem to agree with the concept.
Transcript of the interview.
Fox News
“Hannity and
Colmes”
Related
story
August 14, 2001
Nancy, filling in for Colmes, understood what I was talking about, but a
random counter-guest, New York radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa, expressed
the common misconception that we are advocating euthanasia and suicide. Our
breeding is a mental blind spot when thinking about improved population
density, so death fills the vision. Curtis considers our species to be “the
most creative force, the most dynamic force, in this entire universe.”
House cats seem to hold the same opinion about their species.
