Neanderthal sex god DCI Gene Hunt may drive a gas guzzling Audi Quattro, but by having no children he’s doing his bit for the planet, writes Julia Stephenson.

 

I am intrigued by the forthright views of French writer, Corinne Maier, who has written a book called No Kid: 40 Reasons Not to Have Children ('What, only 40?' suggested one jaded parent).

Miss Maier bravely defies the current bout of baby mania by suggesting that having children is environmentally destructive as well as 'boring'.  She would have had a far more interesting life, she reckons, if she'd never had any herself; instead of stacking washing machines and getting up at the crack of dawn to drive them to school she could be writing more books and having a far jollier time all round.  If she was English of course she could just bung her kids in boarding school and then she could have her cake and eat it, too, but there you go. 

 

So, while reams of childless women are going through the tortuous process of IVF, freezing their eggs and having random unprotected sex with drunken strangers, she is encouraging them to think again.   

Maier believes that the wealthy West is producing too many children, which is speeding up the depletion of the world's resources. 'It's not that there are too many people,' she writes, 'but too many rich people. No one needs our children, because we and they are the spoilt kids of a planet that is on a collision course.  To have a child in Europe or America is immoral – more scarce resources wasted on a way of life that is ever more voracious, capricious, hungry for fuel and destructive of the environment.'   

So would Maier tell a 'childfree' friend who was contemplating motherhood to resist? 'No, I wouldn't as it's not my place to interfere in other people's business,' she says.

She would, though, want them to hear the counter-arguments to having children, and there's no mistaking the rallying cry with which her book ends.

'You too can choose to say no. Nepas'istes of all countries, my brothers and sisters in arms, stay disunited, sceptical and, if possible, without descendants.'

For many people though, having a child is as raw an instinct as the desire for food and shelter. But there is no getting around the fact that bringing a new carbon-guzzling person into the packed planet is the least eco-friendly thing you can do. 

So it's admirable that couples choose to adopt one of the thousands of unwanted children already in the world.  My god-daughter was adopted from unpromising circumstances abroad and has now lucked out with the most loving parents you can imagine.  Incidentally, despite being no fan of Madonna's music I really admire her commitment to adoption.  It's unfair that she gets so much flack when both Angelina Jolie and Mia Farrow attracted barely any criticism for their adoption plans – Mia Farrow adopted an astonishing eleven children and good for her.

I didn't know much about Mia Farrow except that she went to Rishikesh with the Beatles where the Maharishi made improper suggestions to her in a cave (crikey!), but since reading her autobiography I am full of admiration for her astonishing feats of childcare. 

Personally, I can barely cope with the strain of being a godmother even though I barely see my godchildren from one year to the next.  I don't know why I keep saying yes – a mixture of relief and hope that this time I'll do a better job.  But if I'm honest it's a role that leaves me riddled in guilt.  If I'm a rotten godmother I'd be an even worse mother I'm sure. 

Fortunately lazy non mums like me have the perfect excuse when asked by broody grandmothers why they don't have children.  We are child-free, of course, 'for the sake of the planet'.  Not because we are too idle, hate getting up early and would much prefer a brood of Shetland sheepdogs.