Climate Change yielding positive effects

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Arugula Latte (47,920 posts)

Climate change: Causing people to reconsider having children?

I have a relative who is going to urge her young adult children to refrain from making babies in the future due to climate change (of course it won't be her ultimate decision, but it's interesting that she would choose to forego being a grandmother if it were up to her). I had my kids around the new millennium, and at the time I thought: "Well, horrible things have always happened on the planet." I hadn't quite registered the severity of climate change back then. It seemed abstract, something that might happen in the distant future. Now it is all too real. It's different than a war or something like that. It's global and it seems unstoppable and it will occur and have terrible consequences for many decades and centuries. I feel incredibly lucky to have had my wonderful kids, and, selfishly, being a parent has been the best experience by far of my life, but I wonder now if I would make the same decision to have babies if I were turning 30 now.

I'm curious if other people are bringing the new climate reality into baby-making decisions.

Erich Bloodaxe BSN (10,013 posts)

1. Things have been looking grim for quite a while.

Although my decision never to breed was more about the fact that we've already got too many humans stripping the planetary resources faster than they replenish than climate change per se.

Arugula Latte (47,920 posts)

4. There is the question of is it fair to the child to bring it into a melting world ... ?

I don't know the answer to that.

Save the Earth

Kill yourselves faster

Duppers (6,028 posts)

3. Yes. My son will not have a child.

Said it's unfair to bring a child into our future world. He's 28yo and is my only child, so I shall never be a grandmother.

Some of us are looking at the future with open eyes.

REP (20,543 posts)

8. My mother, in the '60s, limited her family size in part due to environmental concerns

She always marveled at the selfishness of families with many children - how long was the planet supposed to be able to support that, if each of those five children had another five children?

My brother and I don't have any children. My mother never cared about not being a grandmother, but she was a highly educated and very practical woman.

Arugula Latte (47,920 posts)

10. My husband comes from a big family, but

the grown siblings had a small number of children themselves. A few had none, a couple had one, and a couple had two. But, yeah, usually that's not the case. Unfortunately in general the people who are breeding most prolifically are the fundamentalist religious zealots.

Like a boss!

StevieM (3,058 posts)

11. I was actually just discussing this issue with my aunt the last time I went home for a visit.

We were talking about all the damage being done to the planet and how bad it would get in the future. I wondered whether her grandkids would want children of their own when the time came. (They are currently 12, 10, 9 3/4, and 7). My aunt didn't think that individual people, when faced with the situation, would balk at the chance to become parents. They might fear the collective damage being done to the planet, but they wouldn't go so far in their own life as to not become a mom or dad if that was what they really wanted.

I think the point when climate change, and its tangible effects, really starts altering pregnancy decisions will be in about 50 years. Or in other words, when my aunt's grandchildren are deciding whether or not to become parents. I think the key factor in changing behavior will be tangible problems on the ground. Of course, we have those problems now, but in 50 years they will be impossible for anyone to deny, and there will be a clearer picture as to just how bad things will be getting over the following 100 years.

alarimer (13,529 posts)

19. Climate change solutions are going to require changing human behavior.

And that may include reducing the human population. I suspect that might be done for us, through natural disasters or disease.

But it will have to include reducing the use of vehicles for personal transportation and requiring greater density of housing. No more single family homes, which leads to urban sprawl, miles of ugly asphalt, too much driving by individuals.

Americans, in particular, are going to resist. We think it's our god-given right to own a car and drive wherever we please, whenever we please. That will have to stop. But it won't.

I honestly think we are just doomed, so people should do whatever they want. There's really no point educating anyone. They won't listen because it requires drastic changes to lifestyles, which no one is willing (or able, even) to do. Honestly at this point I don't care. Our heads are so buried in the sand they will never come out. It's far too late for any changes to have a positive effect.

csziggy (18,558 posts)

20. Growing up in the 50s and 60s made me decide to not have children

With the chance of nuclear war, the assassinations, the political unrest, the predictions of "The Population Bomb" I decided early along that I was never going to have kids. Also, having an aunt that was continuously pregnant for my entire childhood and teen years gave me a clear picture of how unpleasant having kids could be. (She had at least eight pregnancies with six living children and never had an easy pregnancy so she was a miserable person - and still is.)

The Population Bomb was a book that predicted wide spread starvation due to overpopulation. But the time frame that was warned about was in the 1970s and 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb It was part of my freshman core program and was a tipping point for me as an adult that reinforced my previous reluctance to have kids.

Climate change is another dire prediction for the future. While I believe it is far too late to prevent the effects, I have some optimism that humans will find a way to survive. I'm still glad that I didn't have kids.

So commie malfeasance kept a commie from breeding.

 

hamsterjill (5,957 posts)

21. Absolutely. We've discussed it.

My only daughter is in her early 30's and she and her husband will probably not have children. As you so eloquently expressed, it is THEIR decision and not mine, but I have been asked for my opinion and I have given that opinion to them.

Were I in their position trying to decide, both because of economics and because of the state of the world, I personally, would have to think long and hard before bringing a child into all of that.

My daughter is the light of my life and the apple of my eye. She was a joy to raise and she is the best thing that I ever did!!! LOL

Her father and I divorced when she was a toddler and he chose not to be involved. I worked hard to be a good parent and she turned out well and is an awesome young woman. For me, that is enough. Although I would certainly welcome a grandchild if one (or more) is born, I feel fulfilled.

The rest is up to her and her husband...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027048742

[miskie]

SO --

Between abortionmania and the fear of "Climate Change", liberals are ending their own future generations...

[franksolich]

Erich Bloodaxe BSN (10,013 posts)      Thu Aug 6, 2015, 02:26 PM

1. Things have been looking grim for quite a while.

Although my decision never to breed was more about the fact that we've already got too many humans stripping the planetary resources faster than they replenish than climate change per se.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

We all know what's really going on here.

The primitive's a registered nurse with no black marks on his record, and yet he's unemployed.

How hard is it in today's society, for a registered nurse to be unemployed?

It's just that he finds it easier to live off a woman.

She thinks he loves her, but really, she's just an easy lay for him, and a guaranteed one, any time he wants.

Now, we all know how the primitives disguise base selfish motives with a façade of nobility.

Being a noble person, he's not going to have kids because the world's overpopulated.

Yeah, right.

He's not going to have kids simply because his woman balks at the notion of supporting more than just his lazy ass.

[thundley4]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

We all know what's really going on here.

The primitive's a registered nurse with no black marks on his record, and yet he's unemployed.

How hard is it in today's society, for a registered nurse to be unemployed?

It's just that he finds it easier to live off a woman.

She thinks he loves her, but really, she's just an easy lay for him, and a guaranteed one, any time he wants.

Now, we all know how the primitives disguise base selfish motives with a façade of nobility.

Being a noble person, he's not going to have kids because the world's overpopulated.

Yeah, right.

He's not going to have kids simply because his woman balks at the notion of supporting more than just his lazy ass.

RN are in such short supply that many places offer signing bonuses or pay relocation fees.

http://www.indeed.com/q-Registered-Nurse-RN-10k-Sign-On-Bonus-jobs.html

[franksolich]

The best possible face, although not a very likely one, that one can put on the primitive's situation is that well, okay, he went ahead and got an education and a degree in registered nursing.....but then upon practical application of his knowledge and skills in that direction, he found out he wasn't, really, "made" to be a nurse.

It happens; it's not only primitives who sometimes make poor career choices.

However, an education and a degree in nursing is nothing to sneeze at; it's the sort of education and training that one can adapt for use in other sorts of careers.

But this primitive, no.  He found a woman, a simple one and not a particularly comely one, who was desperate for a man to love her.  Desperate enough that she'd let him use her, live off of her.

As one might guess, franksolich is not too enamoured of this primitive's character and ethics, and I've been gently shoving him towards Top DUmmiedom for this year.

[franksolich]

comment 2728:
http://conservativecave.com/index.php?topic=81827.2725

[Carl]

The left is a death cult.

[dutch508]

The only problem with the leftists whining and crying and not having grandbabies because the earth is melting is the fact the islamist are ****ing everything that moves and having a hundred kids against a dozen in the west.

Which side wants to take over the world?

[JohnnyReb]

Uh...uh...uh....decisions, decisions....if you leave your SUV running all the time, the temperature goes up and DUmmies don't bred.....but then your burning of all that oil finances the muslim crazies which we'll have to kill off sooner or later.... 6 of one half a dozen of the other.

[landofconfusion80]

The more the merrier! I want my kids to enjoy tropical Kentucky when they grow up

[obumazombie]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

We all know what's really going on here.

The primitive's a registered nurse with no black marks on his record, and yet he's unemployed.

How hard is it in today's society, for a registered nurse to be unemployed?

It's just that he finds it easier to live off a woman.

She thinks he loves her, but really, she's just an easy lay for him, and a guaranteed one, any time he wants.

Now, we all know how the primitives disguise base selfish motives with a façade of nobility.

Being a noble person, he's not going to have kids because the world's overpopulated.

Yeah, right.

He's not going to have kids simply because his woman balks at the notion of supporting more than just his lazy ass.

With all reverence to coach franksolich, you might not be seeing how far up in the air Eric has his nose.
He is not just a Registered Nurse.
He is a BSN !
He has a bachelor's of science in nursing.
That is a step and cut above all those lowly nurses who are only Associates of science in nursing, yet are still RNs.
And needless to say far and away above those even more lowly LPNs.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Fewer people born to and raised by these scum is basically a good thing, but I do wonder how they think they are going to be sustained in their collective old age or disability scams if the number of people paying into those social plans should fall off drastically.

[landofconfusion80]

Fewer people born to and raised by these scum is basically a good thing, but I do wonder how they think they are going to be sustained in their collective old age or disability scams if the number of people paying into those social plans should fall off drastically.

this just keeps getting better and better! maybe they'll kick off sooner?