On September 13, 1993, motorists driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike witnessed an unusual sight: A highway billboard for the Museum of Science in Boston had been covered by a ten-foot-by-ten-foot black banner with the words “Save the Planet—Kill Yourself” painted in white.
It would be the first high-profile action by the newly formed Church of Euthanasia, featuring the group’s most enduring slogan. Throughout the 1990s the church orchestrated several similarly outrageous public actions—including an appearance on the Jerry Springer Show—seeking to draw attention to the environmental dangers of overpopulation.
Today the Church of Euthanasia website is still up and serves as an archive, although the church itself is gone. Its aggressive campaign against the existence of humanity never caught on, but you can say this for the group: In falling apart, at least they practiced what they preached...
For this reason, the church—and Korda is adamant that she perceives it as a religion first and foremost—has one commandment: “Thou shalt not procreate.”
There are also four pillars, which are voluntary: suicide (”optional but encouraged”), abortion (”may be required to avoid procreation”), cannibalism (”mandatory if you insist on eating flesh,” but only if someone is already dead), and sodomy (”optional, but strongly encouraged”).
“Save the Planet, Kill Yourself” emerged as a succinct way to express alarm at the destruction of the environment, as well as a pathway to the only viable remedy Korda could identify, which was voluntary population reduction.