Should we be having kids in the age of climate change?
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]
No, of course we shouldn't. Good luck getting that message across. People would have children if the earth were covered in sewage.
I agree with Anon above. Most people do not care about the quality of life that their children will have to face as they grow or not grow if they are starving to death. You'd think that organizations like the 700 Club would provide Birth Control services for the people they try to help. They do nothing but treat the symptoms of a problem most of the time it seems. It is going to be "Business As Usual" clear to the end.
I agree with both the above. No one I know wants to hear anything that contradicts their world view that everything will turn out fine in the end. They are all complicit in this unimaginable crime. It gives me greater understanding and compassion for Nazi concentration camp guards.
"It gives me greater understanding and compassion for Nazi concentration camp guards." It certainly helps to understand how some genocides have come about. A "bad economy" is the result of having too many people for the economy to support, the "fossil fuel problem" is only a problem because of the sheer amount being burned. The accidental births would be more than enough. The fact that people sit down and actually THINK about having children, then decide to do it, is beyond my comprehension. It pains me to say it, but don't think humanity has seen its last genocide. I really hope I'm not around to witness it.