Overpopulation Town Criers - Akin to Murderers

The world's youngest religion has taken the planet by storm.  That religion is called radical environmentalism.

This religion is one that values earth over life, plant-life over breath, animal over human.  It is the antithesis of Judaism.

Judaism teaches that there are levels in Creation:

1) דומם - inatimate objects
2) צומח - vegetation
3) חי - animal life
4) מדבר - speaking life (humans)
etc.

The purpose of each of these levels is to serve the next level.  This is why the soil is there to allow trees, grass, and vegetation to grow.  This is why herbivores consume leaves and grass.  This is why Hashem allowed No'ah and his descendants to eat meat.

Radical environmentalists believe the exact opposite.  "Hail the earth, almighty god!" they proclaim.  This is pure Avoda Zara.

But it's even worse than that.

Today's Guardian tells us that the best way to fight climate change is to have fewer children.  Because, of course, the almighty earth takes precedence over people.

And last week, the Tribune had an article about people distributing a (forbidden) type of birth control to people to show the importance of decreased human population in order to lessen the "strain on natural resources and the potential destruction of animals' habitats".

This religion tells us to murder potential humans to save the planet.  This is pure Shefichut Damim (and probably Giluy Arayot to boot).  There may be valid reasons for birth control if sanctioned by a competent rabbi, but saving the planet sure ain't one of them.

Hashem commanded us to populate the earth and have dominion over the animals in the same verse:

כח  וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם, אֱלֹהִים, וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְכִבְשֻׁהָ; וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם, וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבְכָל-חַיָּה, הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל-הָאָרֶץ.

28 And God blessed them; and God said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.'

Also, a verse in Yeshaya that is often quoted by Haza"l comes to mind:

יח  כִּי כֹה אָמַר-יְהוָה בּוֹרֵא הַשָּׁמַיִם הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים, יֹצֵר הָאָרֶץ וְעֹשָׂהּ הוּא כוֹנְנָהּ--לֹא-תֹהוּ בְרָאָהּ, לָשֶׁבֶת יְצָרָהּ; אֲנִי יְהוָה, וְאֵין עוֹד.

18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens, He is God; that formed the earth and made it, He established it, He created it not a waste, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD, and there is none else.

The world was made to be populated by humans, pure and simple.

This is not to say that we should not be kind to the earth.  We should be.  But when those who make it a religion assign it higher priority than the Mitzvah of having children, you know that its proponents have lost their way.

We must heed those verses above and not let this religion creep into Judaism.