Health+Harvest

No Plan B: Deciding Not To Have Children Because of Climate Change

WAMU 88.5

Published September 25, 2019 at 9:20 AM CDT

Participants in the Fridays For Future movement protest during a nationwide climate change action day in Berlin, Germany. Fridays for Future protests and strikes are registered today in over 400 cities across Germany. The activists are demanding that the German government and corporations take a fast-track policy route towards lowering CO2 emissions and combating the warming of the Earth's temperatures. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

Under current projections, analysts are expecting severe environmental disruptions due to climate change by the time babies born today enter adulthood.

This forecast has some young people questioning whether to bring more children into such a world.

Some don’t want to bring children into the world who will ultimately feel the same fear they do. They also worry about the climate footprint of raising a child. And, they don’t want their children to have to live in a world struggling with flooding, fires and more frequent harsh storms.

How does raising a child affect one’s carbon footprint? What would this mean for populations already in decline? We assemble a panel to find out.

Produced by Jonquilyn Hill.

GUESTS

Kathleen Mogelgaard, Senior fellow, The Population Institute; adjunct professor, University of Maryland

Ashley Sanders, Writer; audio producer; member, Extinction Rebellion; @ashsan82

Kelsey Piper, Staff writer, Vox; @KelseyTuoc

For more, visit https://the1a.org.