History
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement was founded by Les U. Knight, a secondary school substitute teacher who lives in Portland, Oregon. Although he was raised in a large family, after becoming involved in the environmental movement as a college student in the 1970s, Knight attributed most of the dangers faced by the planet to human overpopulation. After coming to this conclusion, he joined the Zero Population Growth organization and chose to be vasectomised at age 25. He later concluded that the extinction of humanity would be the best solution to the Earth's environmental problems. He believes that this idea has also been held by some people throughout human history.
In 1991, Knight began publishing VHEMT's newsletter, known as These Exit Times. In the newsletter, he asked readers to further human extinction by not procreating. VHEMT has also published cartoons, including a comic strip titled "Bonobo Baby", featuring a woman who forgoes childbearing in favor of adopting a bonobo. In 1996, Knight created a website for VHEMT; it was available in 11 languages by 2010. VHEMT's logo features the letter "V" (for voluntary) and an inverted Earth (i.e., with north at the bottom).
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