All of us have been able to live on a planet where we can bear witness to wild animals living, playing, hunting, and loving in their own worlds. Our children may not be able to do the same — at least not in the same way we have.

According to a recent World Wildlife Fund report, wildlife populations continue to plummet. And while there is debate about the exact rates of disappearance, even critics agree that the 20th century saw massive loss of wildlife. And the trend is continuing.

What does that have to do with the Having Kids model? The underlying drivers of things like mass extinctions, anthropogenic climate change, ocean acidification, and crowded cities include family size and consumption. And the solutions to those causes include reordering basic values that underlie our human rights and democratic systems, and thinking about the natural world. We need to be intentional about the way we create communities and consume resources in order to protect habitats and the animals we have all grown to love. The Having Kids model is the only family model that addresses, and balances, all of these things.

Children have a right to a world with wildlife. Let’s give it to them.