The next years are going to be fun… The world is burning while the fossil fuel industry is chugging along like everything is great as long as you buy enough co2 credits.
I’m scared in what kind of world my children will have to live in…
The next years are going to be fun… The world is burning while the fossil fuel industry is chugging along like everything is great as long as you buy enough co2 credits.
I’m scared in what kind of world my children will have to live in…
Climate change is one of the biggest reasons I don’t want children. I can’t put blinders on and then feel zero responsibility for dragging them into a hopeless nightmare.
For my wife and I it was initially economic but now we would not have natural kids even if we bacame rich. might adopt if that happend. I am so glad we are not older because if we had been we might have had kids before realizing what a cluster everything is.
i have kids. i actively worry about how miserable their future may be. i try not to talk about this stuff to them much because i don’t want to scare them with it. i don’t think there’s anything i or they can do (except maybe vote).
IMO that’s exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Frankly, what we need is for folks to be raising a generation of Greta Thunberg-types.
See also the bit about “weaponized hopelessness” in the Kurzgesagt video mentioned elsewhere in the thread.
Once my kids get older they will be taught science properly, and they will be fully aware of the seriousness of our situation.
I know people keep saying “I don’t want my kids to suffer” but the fact is the only way out of this is getting more younger people out there AND ENGAGED to make a difference. Your child could discover a breakthrough to solve the problem, who knows? More population isn’t the real problem, it’s what that population does and what corporations do in support of those choices.
I’d rather have taken the shot and failed instead of never trying at all (born and tried instead of never born).
Having up to two kids per couple isn’t “more population” anyway. It takes 2.1 kids, on average, just to replace the older generation as they die off.
And you see the negative effects of this in many countries.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally get not having kids for financial reasons. I have kids myself, it’s been incredibly difficult. We’ve had to find the money and make ends meet, but at the end of the day we’ve been able to do it.
There’s no “breakthrough discovery” needed to solve the problem - we’ve known how to solve this problem for more than a hundred years now. It’s called “dismantling capitalism” - and it’s still our only way out.
I feel you. I have kids too. I fear for their future.
On the flipside, it’s also true that if we all simply give up and don’t have kids because the future looks so bleak, by definition we are admitting to a kind of psychic defeatism and epistemic hopelessness. Having kids is one of the best ways for regular people to have any hope of influencing the future.
Partner and I are child free and this is a big part of it.
It may not be as hopeless as you think: https://youtu.be/LxgMdjyw8uw
I really hope I’m wrong. Also, I love Kurzgesagt! Thanks!
Edit: I wrote that just before watching the video. I hadn’t even considered the idea of “weaponized hopelessness” that they talk about near the end, and how bleak thoughts and apathy ultimately help the fossil fuel industry. Good stuff!
Here’s something to consider about their videos though…
I appreciate the link, but Kurzgesagt is so anti-corporate so much of the time that I don’t think this is a significant issue. The above video of theirs is a great example. They’re not afraid to call out the man.
I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but Kurzgesagt just peddles capitalist greenwashing.
Capitalism will never fix the problem it has caused - never.