Les Knight has a plan to save the universe ... sadly, none of us will live to see it

The dystopian thriller Children of Men, set to open Christmas Day with Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine, imagines a future where women are no longer able to have children, leaving humanity on the brink of extinction. It's typical holiday fare, filled with high anxiety and near apocalypse. And while this time of year may inspire us to curse traffic jams, busy airports, and the fact that we have to wait in line for days to buy our nephew the new Nintendo Wii (especially as the population of the United States just exceeded the 300 million mark), most of us don't actually long to see the decline of our species. But Les U. Knight is not like the rest of us.

Knight, a Portland-based schoolteacher, moonlights as the de facto leader of The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT), a deep-ecology organization that advocates the extinction of the human race by encouraging people to stop breeding. As captured on the colorful bumper stickers for sale on the movement's website, their slogan is, "May we live long and die out." Knight came up with the idea for VHEMT in the early '70s, after a stint in the Army. He underwent a vasectomy at 25 and then set out to encourage the rest of the world to follow suit, in the name of the "biosphere." If he had his way, every man, woman, and child would be wiped from the face of the earth in a couple hundred years. Radar chatted with the avuncular Knight about the end of humankind, anarchy, and picking up women with lines about self-induced sterility.

RADAR: What are your thoughts on the landscape that Children of Men proposes?
As long as there is one breeding couple on the planet, the biosphere is in danger LES KNIGHT: I think the notion that society would fall into violent chaos if we couldn't breed is ridiculous. If viewers find it plausible, it'll show how irrationally human-centered we are. Besides, we're already living in a dystopia, but we don't want to admit it. Voluntary human extinction would prevent the dystopia of that science-fiction drama, not bring it about. Phasing ourselves out would actually enable us to progress toward a peaceful coexistence with others.

What is the mission of The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement?
We encourage people to voluntarily stop reproducing so that eventually Homo sapiens will go extinct and the biosphere will have a chance to recover.

Sounds cheery. Has anybody ever accused you of being crazy?
Oh sure. Maybe I am. I'm not in a position to say. But we should look at the idea of whether reproducing today is crazy or not. It may be crazy to think that all 6.5 billion members of humanity would decide to stop breeding. I don't think that's too likely, but it's still the right thing to do. I believe that is actually a very sane approach.

And you use the word voluntary to make it clear that you are not going around gunning people down or pushing them off cliffs?
Yes. Besides, high death rates cause high birth rates. You can't [wipe out the human race] that way, even if it were moral.

What place does morality have in a discussion about extinction?
Humans are the only species that have morality, or need it. We have an obligation to use the sense of morality we have developed.

Why don't you just ask the French to stop breeding, as a starting point?
[Laughs] Well, there are some who think that would be a good idea. But the trouble with saying some should and some shouldn't reproduce is that everybody has a different idea about who should. People argue that only "smart" people should breed. But everybody thinks they are the ones who are smart.

There are a number of non-voluntary human extinction movements at work right now, in the form of wars. While you may not advocate the means, these do achieve the ends you're after, do they not?
No. After a war both the victors and losers breed to make up for the losses. When men don't come back from war, there are other men who can impregnate the women left at home. Even if it weren't a crime against humanity, war does nothing to slow the population growth. A million people killed in a war is a lot, but it's only five days of human population growth on the planet.

A million people killed in a war is a lot, but it's only five days of human population growth on the planetIs there a timetable for how long a voluntary extinction might take?
If a miracle occurred, and not one more Homo sapien were born, starting now, I would say it would take at least 150 years.

But 150 is about 30 more than the oldest living person currently on the planet.
If no more of us were ever born, as the last of our kind got older, they'd be able to direct a huge share of civilization's technology and resources toward longevity. Also, we would naturally live longer as the stresses from crowding, pollution, and conflicts were significantly relieved. The last generation would be cared for as no other has been, with generous health, education, and recreation opportunities. Could be some very fine specimens of Homo sapiens in the end as they're allowed to reach their full potential.

Who's to say eventual extinction isn't part of the natural order, on the order of an ice age?
It may be, but we are fortunate in that we have these large brains, and we may as well use them. We can see in what direction we're going and we can avoid the cataclysmic eventuality we are headed for.

But you argue that it's this same brainpower that got us into this mess.
We're just too darn clever for our own good, and for the good of other species.

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