Climate and family planning- newspaper LTE
I sent this one to the Virginian Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, VA
Dear Editor-
I read your article “Anxiety over climate change is leading some young Americans
to say they don’t want children” because I have heard young people say that to me.
But I found it frustrating.
As a 69 year old, I want my nation to thrive, and my family to survive, when I am gone. One idea voiced in the article, of young people avoiding having kids because they are afraid of the impact that choice will have on the world, is backwards. Humans don’t care about “the world” and they don’t vote as if it matters. We do care for our children and grandchildren. We should make choices that make their lives better. Yet we often don’t.
Here's how to get our future back. Don’t go childless so that your grandchildren won’t mess up the world. Instead, fix the world so that you can have grandchildren who have good lives. That means fighting climate change NOW not just as individual consumers, but also as citizens of our nation who vote and engage.
Tribal partisanship has been poisoning our well. But a clear majority of us want to work the climate problem, and scientists and economists assert that climate threatens red states just as much as blue states. If we value our descendants, we are going to have to fight for them before they are old enough to fight for themselves. It would be too late then.
sincerely
Chris Wiegard
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