Growing up, my classmates and I celebrated Earth Day, April 22, by planting trees — and thinking of future generations that would enjoy their shade.
These days, though, the sentiment has turned: Many of my peers increasingly believe the planet will suffer if they bring those future generations into the world.
I am a Gen Z woman who wants to have children and address climate change.
That’s not a contradiction, despite those who argue environmentalism means saving the world from our species rather than for it.
Population control is an insidious idea on its own, and its alleged climate benefits have been repeatedly refuted.
The good news is a commonsense approach to the climate allows innovation and prosperity for all while reducing pollution — no human sacrifice necessary.
The numbers are truly staggering: Due to climate-change concerns, 47% of American adults either have at least some regrets about starting a family or thought they shouldn’t start one at all.
(And this finding is a worldwide phenomenon, with adults in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and India even more worried.)
Climate anxiety is most acute for those in my generation, and I constantly see social-media posts from women thinking the best thing they can do for the planet is reject life.
But population control is a fake solution worse than any problem it purports to solve.
It also fundamentally misunderstands humanity’s relationship to the environment: We are to care for the climate so that all life, and especially human life, can thrive.
We are not called to worship the Earth at the expense of our offspring.
Those who avoid starting a family because of climate change aren’t even supporting the environmental fix they think they are.
That’s because this gloomy view ignores the wonderful positives of having children, increasingly effective bipartisan legislation getting signed into law on things like reducing climate-change-linked chemicals and emissions per person falling in the United States (down 30% since 2000).
In fact, as fertility rates show, the problem in this country and others is having too few children, not too many.
Global population could very well peak in our lifetime.
We must also not forget the power of innovation and adaptation to allow our species to overcome daunting challenges.
Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book “The Population Bomb” incited fear about overpopulation and famine.
But these perilous predictions have been proven wrong, as we learned to become more efficient and feed many more people than previously thought possible.
Imagine how tragic it would be if after reading Ehrlich’s book you chose not to have children — only to wait the rest of your life for an apocalypse that never arrived.
I don’t want Americans to make a similar mistake today because of an overly pessimistic view of climate change.
Worries that bringing a child into this world would consign him or her to an insufferable existence on a collapsing planet are simply not justified by what science tells us.
Climate change is a challenge we must address.
But exaggerating the problem helps no one.
Surrendering to irrational climate doom not only spurs climate anxiety and leads people to spurn new life; it’s also counterproductive, undercutting motivation to reduce emissions.
Fortunately, the best path forward reckons with reality: drastically reducing carbon pollution while strengthening the economy and energy security.
Reforming antiquated regulations on electric transmission, for example, would grow the economy and deliver massive emissions benefits.
Domestic mining for critical minerals and rare earth elements, in places like California’s Salton Sea and Wyoming’s Halleck Creek, would help America in the battle with China for clean-energy dominance.
Regulatory reform, innovation and market-driven competition are essential to this commonsense vision.
We should make it easier for US innovators to create affordable and carbon-free technologies, like small modular reactors and carbon capture, and then export them — not climate anxiety — around the world.
Just as our species survived predictions of runaway population growth through the power of innovation, we are figuring out ways to lower global emissions while affordably powering the future.
There are many developments to be optimistic about in the fight for a better planet, but antinatalism isn’t among them.
Earth Day encourages us to take smart action to protect the environment, which could include planting a tree — but ending your family tree isn’t required.
Alina Clough is a fellow at ConservAmerica and the president of the American Conservation Coalition’s DC, Maryland, and Virginia chapter.
