Danielle Blount kisses her 3-month-old baby Ember as she feeds her while they wait to be moved by members of the Louisiana Army National Guard near Walker, after historic flooding in August 2016. Photo: Max Becherer / Associated Press

By Jennifer Ludden
18 August 2016 (NPR) – Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. He’s at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a “small-family ethic” — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to “give them grandchildren.” Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe. For years, people have lamented how bad things might get “for our grandchildren,” but Rieder tells the students that future isn’t so far off anymore. He asks how old they will be in 2036, and, if they are thinking of having kids, how old their kids will be. “Dangerous climate change is going to be happening by then,” he says. “Very, very soon.” [more]

Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?