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.]

CBC.com
VHEMT: The case against humans
September 4, 2008
By Eve Savory
[Concept of voluntary human extinction fairly presented.]

WorldNetDaily
May 11, 2008
By 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.]

G Magazine
A pregnant pause
Sept/Oct 2007
Les U. Knight
[“The Green Lifestyle Magazine” published a one-page opinion piece on VHEMT. The pull quote: “By not breeding, we achieve more good for planet and people than a full lifetime of recycling, offsetting carbon emissions and buying green could do.”
The illustration was a pram full of green plants, growing where no baby grows.]

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
Green to the extreme
Org. promotes human extinction for environmental benefits
21 September 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.”

Daily Californian
The End of the World
6 September 2007
Mohammed Burny
[Columnist relates his discovery of VHEMT, initial reaction, gradual appreciation, and perhaps a “conversion”.]

Sydney Morning Herald
At World's End
6 June 2007
Charles Purcell
[Short Q & A about VHEMT.]

The Independent [UK]
How to save the planet
19 April 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.”

Radar Magazine [NYC]
Appetite for Extinction
December 18, 2006
Peter Hyman
“Les Knight has a plan to save the universe ... sadly, none of us will live to see it.”
[“Save the universe”? Humanity’s powers of destruction may not reach quite that far. Q & A format and an accurate portrayal of The Movement.]

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
By 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.]
page 13 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
by 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
By 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
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
Excerpt:
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."
[Which is why so many who know better still breed. Mahatma Gandhi's advice: "Be the change you want to see in the world."]

Failure Magazine
ENOUGH ALREADY
VOLUNTARY HUMAN EXTINCTION MOVEMENT THANKS YOU FOR NOT BREEDING
by Gregory Dicum
"We can't be breeding right now," says Les Knight. "It's obvious that the intentional creation of another [human being] by anyone anywhere can't be justified today." Knight is the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT), an informal network of people dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the health of the Earth. Knight, whose convictions led him to get a vasectomy in the 1970s, when he was 25, believes that the human race is inherently dangerous to the planet and inevitably creates an unsustainable situation [Basically the same story as the SF Gate article above, with a little reworking]

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
by John Dooley
[John must have missed the first statement on the VHEMT site. Fortunately, an astute reader set him straight.]

Fox News
"Anti-People Group Pushes for Man's Extinction"
July 29, 2001
Michael Y. Park
Anti-People Group Pushes for Man's Extinction
Sunday, July 29, 2001
By Michael Y. Park
VHEMT's viewpoints are a far cry from those of more mainstream organizations concerned with human overpopulation, such as Washington, D.C.-based Population Action International. Whereas VHEMT's ultimate goal is to improve the biosphere for its own sake, PAI's goal is fundamentally human-based.
PAI says Mother Nature is resilient, and notes the Earth has recovered from mass extinctions before — it just takes at least 5 million years to do so, far too long for it to matter to human beings. . .
Not surprisingly, organized religions like the Catholic Church dismiss VHEMT's claims.
"We believe, as does every mainstream religion, that God made the world and God made everything in the word," according to New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling. "It's part of God's plan of creation, and it is absurd to suggest that the world would be better off without the human race."

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.

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
Lyrics by Iconicide ©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

[Poetic license liberally applied in the above. VHEMT's non-violent phase-out doesn't quite pack the punch which punk rock requires. Les]


VHEMT
Lyrics by X

Tonight I watch the last stars whose light can penetrate the smoke, the smog and the reflection of the city into space.
Sadist killer Boardroom swindler This is human.
We've called you here To volunteer.
Here, where triumph leads to collapse, and the memes at the end of the universe welcome our demise.
Righteous poseur Random slaughter This is human.
We've called you here To volunteer.

---

Radio and Podcasts

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

A few of the audio programs which have hosted Les U. Knight.
You can listen to those marked with an asteric *

TV