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No Children, Because of Climate Change – Do You Stand Out for That?


Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Gone are the days when Good Housekeeping told you how to make a baby bonnet or decorate a nursery.

The most important thing holding me back since having children is climate change

My husband and I struggled with the impact of having children on the planet.

VIA LIZZ SCHUMERJanuary 24, 20

Growing up, having a baby someday is like a foregone conclusion. My family and I never really talked about it; everyone just assumed I would follow. As I got older, most of my friends started getting married and starting families, and not long before we got married, so did my husband’s brother Nick and my sister-in-law.

After we got married, Nick bought two books on deciding when to have children, placing them prominently on the coffee table in our newly acquired home. But something changed for me around that time. When the decision was mostly theoretical, I looked at the kids the same way I would any other milestone: just another box I was slated to test on the road to adulthood. Fort. But once it became a real possibility, I began to define my place in the world and my responsibility towards it.

As Nick and I talked about it, what we realized was tilting our individual scales in the opposite direction of what we expected. I’ve always had a rather conflicted attitude about the kids, while Nick loved his nieces and thought he’d consider them cousins ​​one day. On the other hand, children will create another space for our small family. On the other hand, it did feel pretty complete.

Plus, I’ve always been a worrier, with my anxious brain put out there for worst-case scenarios. As a child, my worries were quite common: my house might burn down, my parents might die, or I might. As an adult, my range of concerns has expanded to include not only the well-being of my loved ones, but also that of everyone inhabiting our rapidly warming planet. As we discussed having children, Nick and I looked around our overcrowded world and didn’t see a compelling argument to add to the population. We are even more worried about the kind of world they will inherit, which will almost certainly be a far cry from the world we grew up in.

For many people like me, composting and driving a Prius just doesn’t feel like enough anymore. ONE Gallup Analysis 2018 reported that 70% of adults aged 18-34 say they are worried about global warming, compared with 56% of adults 55 and older. ONE BBC’s recent survey of 8-16 year olds found that nearly three-quarters said they were deeply worried about the state of the planet.

Nor can climate change be disentangled from other social problems associated with family farming. “We want to make the world safer for everyone,” says Kallman. “The right to control your child’s pace of life, the health of your community, and a holistic view of what makes up a community free of domestic violence, with access to safe food, safe schools, where police violence is not a threat.” By banding together to hold elected officials accountable, we can all create meaningful change far beyond our own doorstep.

Read more: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a38727379/climate-anxiety-decision-to-have-kids/

My first impulse was to joke about how they’re at least removing themselves from the gene pool, but there’s something so sad about author Lizz and her husband Nick that doesn’t make me feel like I’m joking. .

Nick at least really wanted to have children at first, he”bought two books on deciding when to have children, put them prominently on the coffee table“. But somehow, they tell themselves they’re not doing something we’re supposed to do in life.

I don’t buy that it is actual climate anxiety that drives these decisions.

People in poor countries where life is difficult, where people with a short life expectancy are more likely to try to have more children than anyone else. The exact reason is debatable, many argue the problem is lack of education, women’s rights and access to birth control, but personally I believe the explanation is much simpler – death is an aphrodisiac. If you see death all around you, or have repeated near-death experiences, our instincts kick in and try to preserve the species.

What’s missing from the lives of people who claim to experience climate anxiety is a real cause for concern. All its aridity and wisdom, the lack of rudimentary panic that might in other circumstances have produced very different reproductive decisions.

What I think we’re seeing is the operation of climate cults, a belief system in which comfortable people generally view having children as a sin.

This has happened many times in the past, for example the Shaker movement of the 1700s also held that procreation was a sin.

History of Shakers

Background

The Protestant Reformation and technological advances led to new Christian denominations outside the Catholic Church and mainstream Protestant denominations in the 17th and 18th centuries. the second of Christ, commonly known as the Shakers, is a Protestant denomination founded in England in 1747. The French Camisards and the Quakers, two Protestant denominations, both contributed to the formation of the Shaker creed.

Ann Lee was born the daughter of a blacksmith in Manchester in 1736. She worked in a cotton mill, and in 1762 she married the blacksmith Abraham Standerin. They had four children, all of whom died in infancy. Ann joined the Shakers in 1758, and 12 years later had “a peculiar manifestation of Divine light”. After this experience, she became the leader of the Shakers. In 1774, she received a revelation instructing her to found a Shaker church in America. Ann Lee, her husband and seven members sail to America on May 10, 1774. By the end of 1776, she and some of her followers were northwest of Albany, New York, at which time she and her husband were separated. She gathered followers in New York until her death in 1784.

Shaker’s Faith

The Shakers practice communal living where all property is shared. They did not believe in fertility, and therefore had to adopt and recruit converts into their communities. For those who are adopted, they have the choice to stay in the community or leave when they turn 21.

Like the Quakers, the Shakers were pacifists who had advanced notions of gender and racial equality. The Shakers believe in the intellectual and artistic development opportunities within the Society. Simplicity in dress, speech and manners was encouraged, as was living in rural colonies, away from the corrupting influences of the cities. Like other Utopian society was founded in the 18th and 19th centuries, Shaker believed that a more perfect society could be formed on earth.

Read more: https://www.nps.gov/articles/history-of-the-shakers.htm

The Vibrations still exist, even though they’re dead.

But I can’t help but wonder how many wonderful extras there could be in the world, if Shaker founder Ann Lee hadn’t had the traumatic experience of watching all 4 of her children die. .

What the shakers did, what the greens are doing today, it was like witnessing a prolific serial killer sweep through everyone in the world, killing all millions of babies. and children and adults and grandparents could have been, taking all the joy and happiness out of the world.

Who knows how many Einsteins or Newtons or Mozarts or Picassos or Ghandis, maybe how many people could have transformed the world, except then and now, thanks to belief systems that prevent birth real estate, all these wonderful people will never get a chance to be born.

I hope you find a way to get over this climate anxiety, Lizz Schumer, before it’s too late. Having a baby is a stressful, life-changing decision, but there is no greater joy than the joy of bringing a new baby into the world, sharing your love with your family, seeing they grow and bring joy and happiness. and love everyone whose lives they come into contact with.



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