The Climate Crisis Is Already Transforming the Family

2 comments

1. I’m confused. The article starts with a theory that makes sense – climate change makes child-bearing less desirable because who wants to bring children into a world on fire? But the survey results show peoples’ desire to have children is…largely unchanged, at least for those who responded. But the article continues as if the results showed otherwise.

2. Well I hope so, because if we actually care about quality of life for future generations, we need to stabilize growth and potentially even slowly downsize.

   Although I’m a younger millennial, I had a classic “’80s” upbringing–out til the streetlights came on, playing in the creek, fields and woods around my house, rarely inside except to grab food to take outside again.

   Over the past ~20 years, I’ve watched every scrap of land I used to play on get developed–mostly houses, but some strip-mall style businesses and tearing down small schools to make larger school complexes.

   A child in my neighborhood would now have to travel almost two miles to find an open piece of land to play on. Not to mention, it’s gotten so much hotter in the summer and rain patterns have gotten so weird that there are noticeably fewer days per year that it’s comfortable to spend hours outside. Wildfire smoke is even becoming an issue in my area, not to mention the increased traffic in the side streets along with its noise and pollution.

   The childhood I had is now literally impossible for a kid in the area I grew up in, and all because of the need to accommodate endlessly more humans.