The dark side of sustainability: Avoiding and shortening lives in the anthropocene

In this paper, we critically rehearse the morality of avoiding and shortening the lives of present and future consumers in order to decrease humanity's impact on global eco-systems and spare scarce natural resources in the Anthropocene. Our main objective is not originality, but rather providing a short tour of some relatively unexplored recesses of moral reflection, as it tackles practices of sustainability that may not accord easily with our wishes about what life in our own geological epoch should have been like. We shall discuss these practices only as moral options to be embraced by individuals voluntarily, out of a sense of obligation (or perhaps also in pursuit of various benefits that may be offered as positive incentives) - not as coerced, mandatory activities imposed on individuals by some agents, such as governments. Copyright © FrancoAngeli.