Welcome to Gaia! ::

Human overpopulation is a huge issue. We're taking up a lot of land, water, and resources. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, human overpopulation endangers approximately:

• 12 percent of mammals
• 12 percent of birds
• 31 percent of reptiles
• 30 percent of amphibians
• 37 percent of fish

There are many ways that you can help out though.

-Have two or fewer children. Two children replace their parents, making the population stay relatively stable. Three or more children, on the other hand, significantly contribute to the overpopulation issue.

-Spread the word. Write about it on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Gaia, or anywhere else that you frequent.

-Donate. If you have cash, make a donation to an organization like the Center for Biological Diversity.

-Volunteer. The Center for Biological Diversity is handing out condoms in really neat boxes with overpopulation information printed on them. If you have an appropriate place to distribute condoms (a college class, a clinic, a concert, etc.), you can volunteer to do so. Mine came in the mail today!

-Visit http://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/ and http://biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/condoms-02-11-2010.html to learn more, sign up to volunteer, or to enter to win condoms for life.

Or better yet, don't have biological children at all, there are hundreds and thousands of children that don't have parents out there who are here already.

That's my plan. And I don't plan on being on a wait list for a baby while fully formed children languish to be dumped into or already inside the foster care system.

Very good point.

Also a lot of kids looking for homes have developmental disabilities, behavioral problems, serious health problems, etc. often as a result of abuse, exposure to drugs before birth, exposure to alcohol before birth, etc.

So you're really darned if you do and darned if you don't. You don't want to make more kids and add to the problem but you don't want to hold back all the good genes so all that all the morons can keep reproducing.

My partner and I have decided to try for one biological child. Then at least we'd know about the genetic situation, that the child wasn't exposed to drugs, that the child wasn't exposed to alcohol, etc.

After that we might stay put, try for one more, or decide to adopt or foster. Not sure yet. If we're sterile, we're not sure what we'd do yet either. But we have agreed that no matter what, we'd never try for more than two biological children.

Yeah, that's just incredibly ignorant for people to say. It's like hillbillies have no concept of people not wanting to breed uncontrollably. xp

GOOD IDEA
Pull out smile
Or ******** on the last 2 days of your period
Or both
Thats what I do cause I hate condoms
I really don't know why I hate them.... but I do.
I really want a biological kid... just 1...
But being homeless makes things difficult

The idiotic government needs to give women everywhere access to affordable birth control. If that happened, we would have less unwanted children, and less people to destroy the planet. Also women would have more control over their bodies.

As for me, I don't really want kids anyway, but if I ever should I'll probably adopt. Or just have fur babies.
It really annoys me how even now people expect every woman to breed...

Anyway, this problem needs to be taken seriously! Thanks to people breeding like rabbits we are killing our own planet, and EVERY OTHER living thing on Earth! Plus it's causing hunger, homelessness, ect...

Well, it is generally pretty careless to have sex without a reliable form of birth control if you're not in a position to care for a child. I don't blame you for not wanting to take hormonal birth control, but not liking condoms isn't really a good reason for not using them. Was there something specific you didn't like? Perhaps a different kind of condom would solve the problem? For example, condoms that are coated with spermicide irritate some women. Other women are allergic to latex. But there are condoms that are made without latex and without spermicide. There are also thin condoms and condoms with different textures if it's the feel of the condom that bothers you or your partner. So try a few different kinds if you haven't already.

You can also talk to your doctor about the diaphragm, cervical cap, or non-hormonal IUD. If you don't have health insurance, you can visit a clinic like Family Planning or Planned Parenthood. Their services are free or low cost.

Or you can try spermicide on its own. It is available over the counter. It irritates some women, but others use it without a problem. It's also not as reliable as other forms of birth control, and therefore isn't ideal, but it would at least be a little protection to add to your pulling out and charting.

If you're not willing to use any of those methods, then at least be very careful with the charting and pulling out.

The pull out method can work fairly well when done right. The problem is that most people don't have the knowledge and self control to do it right! Make sure your partner urinates before and after sex. That will flush out any sperm so that they don't get mixed in with his pre-ejaculate. And make sure he has the self control to actually make it out in time.

Keep charting your cycle. Avoid sex around the time you're most likely to ovulate. Make sure you have a good understanding of your cycle and ovulation too. The last two days of your period isn't the most "dangerous" time to have sex, but it isn't the "safest" time either. So it's actually not the time you should be shooting for. The typical 28 day cycle works like this. Day 1 is the first day of your period. Your period ends around Day 5. You ovulate around Day 14. The egg dies around Day 15. Your body then prepares for your next period. Since sperm can live in the v****a for a few days and ovulation may not happen exactly like clockwork on Day 14, you should give it a little wiggle room. That means the most "dangerous" time to have sex is around Days 10-16 in your cycle. The "safest" (no time is considered completely safe) time would be after ovulation but before your next period ( because some women ovulate early, some even ovulate during their period!), so around Days 20-28. You can use www.mymonthlycycles.com to help you keep track. The site is free, it'll keep track of all your periods, it'll tell you when to expect your next period, it'll tell you when you're probably going to be the most fertile, and it can email you updates if you want. You can even double check with a doctor to make sure you are ovulating on schedule (because some women ovulate at wonky times even if their cycle seems regular otherwise) so that you can feel more confident with your charting.

I have been think about adopting lately. Not now ! but in the future. It's a really interesting subject. I saw a lot of adopted child recently I think it's gaining in popularity ? My family is not to happy about the idea...