Courtney Martin on the environmental impact of babies:
Let’s be honest, babies aren’t known for being camera-shy, but they’ve really been hogging the spotlight as of late. There’s that new Focus Features film, Babies. And then last week The New York Times Sunday Magazine explored their morality in a cover story chock-full of images of cartoonishly big-eyed infants.
But don’t be fooled by their innocent appearance. While fertility rates have been consistently dropping worldwide over the last 10 years, we’re still way over budget when it comes to those chubby little humans. Last year, according to the Global Footprint Network, 6.8 billion of us consumed the renewable resources of 1.4 Earths.
