The Children of Man Made Climate Change

"But how can you sanction bringing a little girl... a child full of hope and naive belief into a world... when that little girl grows to be a young woman and looks you in the eyes and says, ‘You knew all along, didn’t you?’ What do you say then?" These are the haunting words of Philip Ettinger's character Michael in Paul Schrader's unforgettable film First Reformed. The entire film, this scene, in particular, has stuck with me since I first viewed it in 2018. Climate Change wasn't a regular thought in my mind until 2015 - the year I graduated high school. I was eighteen years old entering community college with a good feeling about the future, being somewhat confident in our political institutions, and believing everything would work out in the end. I'm twenty-four now and none of these thoughts apply to me anymore. The future is seeming bleaker and bleaker with each passing day, my political opinions have only been pushed further from inaction, and I highly doubt the world will "work this out" before our end. This begs the question: Is it morally responsible to have children in an age of incoming catastrophe?

One of the primary goals of parents is to be able to give your children more than you had. To leave them in better financial shape, comfortable mental well-being, and ensuring they're physically well. How are we, as Millennials and Zoomers, suppose to achieve this? Both generations are overpaid and underworked, both generations are competing in the toughest job markets, both generations face economic instability, both generations are going to have to handle the climate crisis as well. We saw the fragility of our institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our system will not be sustainable to handle the wave of catastrophes brought on by Climate Change. This isn't a future far away that we can put off because we won't be here, this is something we are going to see in our lifetimes. We have nowhere to run to.

Within the next decade or two, we will see entire regions of the world that are home to millions become inhabitable - Parts of Northern Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and the Western United States just to name a few. Shortly after our coastal cities around the world will suffer from the rising sea levels causing the deaths of thousands and the displacement of millions. Governments do not have the adequate resources to provide measurable responses to these catastrophes. Food will become scarce, conflicts will arise over water, and mass migration into safer parts of the globe will lead to contention. But these safer spaces will only become the next target for Climate Change's wrath through droughts which will lead to famines which will lead to mass starvation. The melting of permafrost in the Arctic will allow unknown ancient microbes to be released into the air causing a greenhouse gas effect while being capable of being devastating for humans and animals alike. Our oceans will become more acidic and cause mass extinctions of marine wildlife creating horrific conditions for villages, towns, and cities around the planet.

Our system of free-market capitalism will not save us from the onslaught of tragedies. Our system of free-market capitalism has and will only speed up our demise. There is no incentive to save the planet tomorrow if there is money to be made today. The necessary resources will go to the rich, while the rest of us will be forced to survive on our own.

It's easy for us to be distracted in our own worlds without much thought over the looming disaster. Young people focusing on the now wanting to better themselves is completely understandable and rational. The age-old saying, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" is the mentality of many young people, including myself for myself only. But when your responsible for the life of another, how can you not feel guilty? Millennials and Zoomers have grown up in an age of climate realization and continue to have children knowing their future will be uncertain. My grandparents will not be alive to these realities, my parents will be older than my grandparents are now, but those in my age range will see this along with their children and grandchildren.

This isn't an antinatalist viewpoint, this is coming from a humanist concern. None of us want danger to come to our children then why are we so willing to create our children in a time where danger will come to them? How can our children be the future when we've given them no future? Are we selfish for this? Or are we willfully ignorant in our decision? If you have children or are planning to have children in your 20s-30s and by the time they are your age now, you both will see the harsh realization of the world. How will you respond when they ask you if you knew what was coming?