Global Warming and Having Babies

Does Anyone Really Actually Care?

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Many people I know and love are pregnant or have small kids and babies right now. And I love them as I said but I worry for them. I admit it, I grieve for the babies yet to be born in a world where not much is left.

Let’s do a quick rundown of what is happening and what is ahead, shall we?

• Global temperatures are rising and have been rising for the last 35 years and it is getting hotter every year.
• Warming oceans — making it a whole new habitat game for sea life.
• Acidic oceans — again, ruining it for the ecosystem and food chain of the ocean.
• Shrinking ice sheets and glacial retreat, along with rising sea levels that will wipe out a lot of coastlines fairly soon.
• Extreme weather events — you’ve seen them, — stronger hurricanes, snow in Mexico City, 90 degree weather in Alaska for the first time on record, — chaos and unpredictability.
• The 6th Mass Extinction — we are losing insects and amphibians in massive numbers, along with a lot of other species, and experts predict humans can’t be far off from being next.
• Salt-Water Fish Extinction by 2048 — people like fish, right? They are not doing well right now.

All of this and we have less than 12 years to start actually taking massive steps to reduce and ok, actually end all emissions and sources of carbon rise that create global warming and save the world, or else, it’s done for good. Irreversible and unstoppable.

Capitalism or Saving the World — We Cannot Have Both

And as Naomi Klein has mentioned, saving the world from the worst consequences of climate change directly involves ending neoliberal capitalism. She’s not alone as this is the recommendation of the world’s leading scientists and experts on climate change as well.

And people can imagine a world without bears or fish, a world with wildfires and hurricanes running wild, but they cannot seem to imagine a world where we fundamentally alter the way we run economies and the things we allow corporations to do.

And this is because, another fact, well, the worst impact, the hardest hit, the first hit, by climate change are the poor and the poor nations around the world, — and these tend to not really ever matter to capitalism, or to ever factor into the daily decisions of most people in America.

And yet these changes brought on by climate change will force over 120 million people around the world into poverty by 2030 and have already created over climate refugees, or climate migrants — people who have lost their homes and land, their habitat, due to the changed environment and the fight over resources.

We have large populations with no access to clean water, — all over the world, and yes, in the United States too. We have large populations who suffer from air pollution so intense that wearing masks just to be outside has become a way of life.

These same sources of massive climate change and pollution are also why we are eating plastic, why the insides of fish are black, why we have chemicals in things that cause illness, disease, and why we have food that is often unsafe to eat. This will only get worse, only spread. So, now what?

These global scale problems caused by the pollution and human-created/capitalism created systems of how we do business, make things, drive cars, use resources, are massive and linked to other social problems. No one article can list them all, — there is so much connection, one thing causes ten other problems, these problems fall like dominoes into other problems, and this is what gets to me, — it is overwhelming, it is hard to grasp, and yet, we have to try.

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Back to The Personal (Hint: The Personal is Political, The Personal is Global)

I know I am not alone in being overwhelmed. I know I am not alone in suffering from what experts are calling climate grief.

But, I have to wonder as I look around my life and in my Facebook feed of new birth announcements, gender reveal parties, 1st birthday celebrations, well, I wonder if anyone is actually taking the realities of climate change, of a world that is fundamentally different from any world we have ever known, seriously when it comes to the lives of their own children.

I’ve spoken with some young people who just do not want to know about climate change. They think it is negative and they think it will make them too upset. Or they think it is political and does not really matter to their day to day. They want to shop for clothing and shoes, they want to go out, they want to dream and have plans.

And then, they wonder why it’s getting so much hotter every summer, or feel sad about what is happening to a polar bear on the news, but they rarely connect the dots. And they are planning to have children, raise families, and I think, just disassociating from the context we are actually living in.

My fiancé is 54 and I’m almost 40 so we aren’t having any more kids or kids together at all, which bums me out on a level that almost feels life deep grief — if I had met him sooner or gasp, the dream, got to him first and been his age way back when I would have gladly had 18 gorgeous babies with him. Yes, a bit irresponsible I know but I have always wanted a big family and I have always wanted to have that many people love me and be around me in family ways.

Yeah there’s grief there for sure. I won’t get to have that.

But now with all that I know about climate change I suppose I have to tell myself it’s ok. I can mourn what didn’t get to be but also know that bringing more babies into a world on fire is probably the most irresponsible and deeply sad things to contemplate doing right now.

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Between Reality and Hope

This is an ethical question, a moral question, and one that also hurts.

Babies are wonderful. Of course young people want to have babies and of course why should they have to think twice about their decision to do something that, well, used to be considered the normal path of life, a rite of passage.

But what do we owe these babies, these children, when it comes to the fact that they will not get to live how we got to live, — at all.

I talked to my daughter about climate change, she’s ten, and she almost started crying.

She said, “Mom, please stop telling me this, it is scary.”

I wanted to cry as well.

Yes, it is scary.

But don’t we owe our children honesty about what’s happening now, about what’s ahead?

And how do we balance honesty, — science, facts, data, — which is not negativity, which is not just ‘ Debbie Downer’ talk, — but actual things, actually happening, — how do we balance this with an attempt at hope, an attempt at action, an attempt at making our kids feel safe and like they have a good life ahead of them?

When maybe, just maybe, they aren’t safe, and they might not have a good life ahead of them?

I honestly don’t know how to wrap up this piece. I do not want to sound harsh or judgmental about people having babies in the midst of a pretty much ending world, but, I just want to know how to proceed now, with these babies here, — what’s the plan?

Yes, let’s celebrate birthdays and yes let’s love these babies, — but what’s the plan?

Do we prepare them for this climate changed world, do we lie to them and read them books about cute and happy animals that will no longer exist on the earth in a few years, do we take them to climate change protests and rallies and riots and radicalize them for the upcoming political wars caused by dwindling and hoarded resources?

What is the plan?

What is your plan?

Let’s talk in the comments, or online, or in person, or at the riot, shall we?

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Jenny Justice is a mom, Sociology instructor, and writer. You can follow her on Medium and at Jenny Justice, Writer, for more insightful articles, essays on empathy and introversion, and all other things nerdy, kind, spiritual, and informative when it comes to education, parenting, culture, poetry, equality, self and social justice. She has been recognized as a top writer on Medium in Education, Parenting, Reading, and Racism.