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Site Claims Musk & Tesla Are Anti-Environmental

Because Elon Musk has so many kids is he being environmentally irresponsible?

  • No, Go ye forth and multiply.

    Votes: 3 13.6%
  • No, if he can afford it, so what.

    Votes: 4 18.2%
  • Yes, over-population is root of all other environmental problems, so he looks like a hypocrite.

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • He may not be green, but it shouldn't affect the positive eco impact of his cars.

    Votes: 10 45.5%
  • We should not be interested in his personal life

    Votes: 3 13.6%

  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
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It's interesting that Steven Kotler has adopted the tactic of personally attacking a proponent of green "initiatives" (for lack of a better umbrella term) that is often used by anti-environmentalists. One can find innumerable examples of people attacking Al Gore for alleged hypocrisy on environmental issues because it's effectively impossible for a person like Al Gore to have zero impact on the environment (i.e., try to tour the world promoting green initiatives with zero impact or in an electric vehicle).

It's incredibly easy and lazy, and I expect more of somebody who is allegedly "pro" environment to use such a tactic. If it wasn't "too many children", you could find something else Musk did that wasn't 100% eco-friendly. It's ridiculous to take a personal activity and use it to attack something as far reaching as Tesla and what it means for the development of electric cars in the United States.

Second, having too many children? Really? Is he *really* attacking having 5 kids? Why not take that to the logical conclusion and say environmentalists shouldn't have any children? That would be *really* eco-friendly. How many children is OK according to Kotler? When you start criticizing someone for not being environmentally sound because they have children, you're really sliding down a slippery slope into ridiculousness. A slippery slope that can lead to all sorts of endless bickering about "who is eco-friendly *enough*?" that can lead to nothing good.

So, in the end, I think this guy not only makes a terrible argument, but it's completely counter-productive to what it appears that he is supporting.
 
While I agree that our growing population is the biggest problem our species faces, dismissing the value that Tesla Motors has in either solving our petroleum-based transportation problem or motivating the big automakers to do something helpful simply because the CEO has five kids is the dumbest argument I've ever heard.

Do you suppose there's a single automaker on the planet that has no executives with two or more kids? And why limit this argument to automakers? By Kotler's reasoning, before doing business with any company, we should look at all the employees to see if there's anyone at the company that isn't sufficiently green to earn our business, while we're living in our off-grid yurt and eating only vegetables from our own organic garden.

Frankly, anyone who is blogging is using more than their share of the planet's resources, me included. That doesn't mean we can't make significant progress toward a sustainable economy by driving electric.
 
What a ridiculous hack job. Yes, over population is a problem, but there are other issues to consider. Elon has gone on record as saying he basically thinks that it's a moral obligation for smart people to have more kids so that we have more smart people around. He might have said it with more tact (or not), but basically he'd like to counter balance the prevailing trend:

Idiocracy - Opening Sequence - Video
 
While I agree that our growing population is the biggest problem our species faces, dismissing the value that Tesla Motors has in either solving our petroleum-based transportation problem or motivating the big automakers to do something helpful simply because the CEO has five kids is the dumbest argument I've ever heard.

Amen. And didn't Musk have twins and triplets? Not that it would be a big deal if he had planned on having 5 kids, but it doesn't sound like that was the case at all.
 
Overpopulation is THE top environmental proplem

I didn't click on the link because it's probably not safe, but this looks like another spambot posting.

First, I'm not a SPAMbot.

Second, there is no danger in clicking the link--or just copying it into one's browser. Also, it can be accessed from digg at The Anti-Environmentalism of Tesla Motors� Elon Musk

Third, I reread the essay attacking Musk and think the author has a good point. If one is environmentally irresponsible in his personal life, how can he be taken seriously when he tries to sell a "green" product.

But what really bothers me, if it is true, is Musk saying that smart people should have more kids than other people. This is not a good survival tactic for the human race. What we need is a good mix of spiritual people, physically strong people, creative people, empathetic people and most importantly people who are NOT arrogant--a criteria Musk does NOT meet. Arrogance has gotten us into many more problems than smart people have ever been able to get us out of. If Musk really in favor of eugenics?
 
This is always going to be a very touchy subject. Many people feel the need to have a child and continue their family in some manner. My two kids are the best thing ever for me and I find a great deal of happiness raising them.

So it would be very hypocritical for me to suggest that others not have that same experience. Should everyone else sacrafice their future family except those that already have children? That doesn't seem like it will fly.

At the same time, overpopulation of the planet is clearly an issue.
Family planning seems like the answer. Two children per family.

Most of Europe and Russia are already in a population decline with less than 2 children per family. It is mostly the developing world with massive population growth.

From my amateur reading on the topic, the best thing to do is education of women so they have other opportunities.

This really has nothing to do with Tesla and it is idiotic to target Elon Musk as anti-environmental because of his children. Elon Musk has funded Solar City and Tesla Motors. I think he has done FAR more than most of us to advance renewable energy and sustainable transportation technology.
 
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At the same time, overpopulation of the planet is clearly an issue.
Family planning seems like the answer. Two children per family.

Two kids per family is a good policy because then human populations will decline, which is what we need to do since we have already far exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet according to most experts.
 
But what really bothers me, if it is true, is Musk saying that smart people should have more kids than other people. This is not a good survival tactic for the human race. What we need is a good mix of spiritual people, physically strong people, creative people, empathetic people and most importantly people who are NOT arrogant--a criteria Musk does NOT meet. Arrogance has gotten us into many more problems than smart people have ever been able to get us out of. If Musk really in favor of eugenics?

Actually, dumb people tend to reproduce in greater numbers than smart, so Musk's case is a noble cause. See Idiocracy.
 
First, I'm not a SPAMbot.

Second, there is no danger in clicking the link--or just copying it into one's browser. Also, it can be accessed from digg at The Anti-Environmentalism of Tesla Motors� Elon Musk

Third, I reread the essay attacking Musk and think the author has a good point. If one is environmentally irresponsible in his personal life, how can he be taken seriously when he tries to sell a "green" product.

But what really bothers me, if it is true, is Musk saying that smart people should have more kids than other people. This is not a good survival tactic for the human race. What we need is a good mix of spiritual people, physically strong people, creative people, empathetic people and most importantly people who are NOT arrogant--a criteria Musk does NOT meet. Arrogance has gotten us into many more problems than smart people have ever been able to get us out of. If Musk really in favor of eugenics?
I apologize. I saw this was post #1, along with logic that doesn't make any sense.
 
totally disagree

I totally disagree that overpopulation is the worlds biggest problem.

A far greater problem is that a small fraction of the world's population consome most of the world's resources and thus the worlds food. There is enough food produced in the world every year to feed everyone on the planet, but the poorest cannot afford it.

Most of the countries where hunger is widespread are actually net food exporters, they export to the rich countries that can pay more for their food as animal feed than the poor can afford to spend to consume it themselves.

The "new green revolution" stuff is bunk. If we produced more food there would just be a slightly larger group at the top eating luxury food items while the same poor were hungry.

If everyone in the world had the same consumption footprint of those in the US, the sustainable population of the planet would probably be less than half of what it is now. Who wants to tell the other half?


Read: World Hunger 10 myths by Lappe,Collins,Rosset