The group Conceivable Future holds a house party discussion in Chicago for people to talk about concerns over having children under the threat of climate change.
Credit: Marya Spont-Lemus
Though Laura Formisano says she never felt a huge desire to have children, she used to presume that would change.
But climate change could make the planet so uninhabitable, she says, she’s not sure she can ever bring herself to become a parent.
“It almost feels like a con, to bring a child into the world when it’s probably not going to be a place we’re really going to want to live,” says Formisano, 30, who manages a co-working space in Los Angeles and has been married for seven months.
Is the future simply too horrific to bring children into? Some couples, frightened by the prospect of droughts, wars, famines and extinctions brought on by climate change, are making that decision.
A Facebook group for women to discuss the idea launched this month, and it’s winning over supporters in Europe and the USA. Conceivable Future, a U.S.-based group, has held more than […]
I am an old guy and I have heard this statement my whole. My answer has always the same- How do you know that your child won’t be the one to lead the planet into a better direction-maybe the new Messiah or one of his helpers? Sadly- negative thinkers have always been a part of humanity and always will be. Maybe it’s better for the rest of us if
they don’t have kids. The kids would probably influenced by being raised by such a person.
We know that the population has already outstripped the earth’s potential to support the number of people in the world right now. But even if you one doesn’t believe that, AND with the number of people likely to lose their lives due to disease, flooding, heat waves, food shortages, there are still a great number of children who are without parents. Many of the young women and men who have decided not to have children, or at least not immediately, are looking into adopting orphaned children and I, for one, find that reflects the inspiring changes, the powerful life affirming promise that younger generations are embodying. In addition to this, I’m holding space for the possibility that more than one potential parent, ie 3, 4 or even more will come together to support, educate and nourish a child in need. In essence, creating a family that’s not related by blood, but by compassion and love. These wildly unknown, chaotic and unpredictable times call for wildly creative life affirming ideas and actions that haven’t, as yet, been imagined. We CAN do this. The children need all of us.