OK , here's a green-Earth scheme that's sure to catch on: If you want to help the planet, extinguish your future family line.

Apparently what the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement wants to accomplish is nothing short of humans disappearing from the Earth, so as to save its ecosystems.

It seems so counterintuitive for us to have developed to a point where we can truly appreciate the world around us, learn about and understand the minutiae of all the processes taking place, to simply disappear from the Earth as though we were never here at all.

I find it so sad that with all of our technical capability, with all the knowledge we've gained, with all of the options before us, the best idea these folks can come up with is for everyone to simply die out.

If that's what they want, of course they're free to practice what they preach, but as for me, I'm confident that our generation, and the generations to come will find some way of living in harmony with the environment and with each other, so long as we can raise them with a respect for the environment and plant the seeds of ingenuity, creativity and industriousness within them.

I'd like to see (although I probably won't) at least a portion of humanity venture off this planet and forge new societies in new places, and perpetuate the species long after life on Earth has ended.

And life on Earth will eventually end. That's what science tells us. How myopic to think that humans killing themselves off will be somehow "better" for a planet dependent on the life of a star, and the protection of the gas giants!

Life is fleeting as it is. Why throw it away because we can't see the forest for the trees?