We live in a world where nothing’s as easy as a fairy godmother flicking a wand to make the problems go away. If true love’s first kiss could solve everything, the only problem we’d have left to deal with would be a whole lot of chapped lips. But there’s some truth to the fairy tales we grew up hearing, in that if you ever hope to find a happy ending, you have to first slay the beast. No one is going to do the work for you; happy endings won't come around someone starts fighting to make them happen.
One of the largest concerns of current and future generations is the effects climate change has had and will continue to have on Earth. Despite rumors that we’ll be able to move to Mars sooner or later anyways, we won’t stand a chance if we don’t act upon it soon. Yes, there are all kinds of environmental agencies and laws being instated to help modify the ways in which we use energy and resources. However, aside from reducing, reusing, and recycling, as well as the occasional vote to support environmental projects, the majority of the population has had little to no job in the whole ordeal. Yet we as the masses are the ones that cause the greatest impact. So what needs to change?
Some believe that this climate crisis should be viewed as a reproductive crisis, and that slowing the rate that our population is growing will grant us more time to restructure our societies to be more sustainable. As more and more children are brought into the world, carbon emissions only continue to rise with population levels, in turn resulting in worsening environmental impacts. Because of all of this, Meghan Kallman and Josephine Ferorelli started the Conceivable Future movement, which demands women “the right to make reproductive decisions free from massive, avoidable, government-supported harm.” They also demand that “the US end fossil fuel subsidies as an act of commitment to our generation and those that follow”. Both women have serious doubts about whether bringing a child into the world is really the best idea based off of the current state of the environment. Problems that aren’t addressed now are only going to continue to grow until at some point in the next couple of decades, they can’t be ignored any longer.
Others in the field share similar viewpoints; philosopher Travis Rieder tells students in his class at James Madison, “Maybe we should protect our kids by not having them.” He has named climate change a reproductive crisis, because the fear of bringing children into a world that can’t sustain them is terrifying to many young couples nowadays. Not only that, but it has been estimated that by 2050, the world’s population will be over 9 billion people.This brings the concern of whether or not farmers will be able to maximize crop yields enough to feed that many people, or if we’ll have a food crisis on our hands.
With all of these factors at hand, and many more where those came from, it is difficult to make a decision of whether further increasing the population is worth the risk, when there are so many children in the world that need homes as it is. When I read fairy tales as a child, I always dreamed of finding my own happy ending one day. I imagined myself having kids and raising a beautiful family, as did many others. I never thought to question whether or not it would be a safe decision for my future children.
We all must embody the heroes from our childhood fairy tales and tackle this climate crisis beast head on. Waiting for others to make necessary changes for us will never work; if not everyone helps to make this sustainable change, then none will occur. Whether or not this climate crisis is a reproductive crisis is up to individual interpretation, but regardless, we must push for more sustainable methods of living so we can reach a place where we don't need to fear for future generations.
