After the Trumpening I'm not sure I want children. I don't want to bring them up in a world that will be torn apart by climate change within my lifetime.
I understand. I deeply want to have children, but I'm also very concerned about that and don't want to bring them into a world where they have to deal with something so terrible that in no way is there fault. However, at the same time I realize that if everyone who thought like you and I decided not to have children, that would mean that the only people who would be having children would be the ones who give no fucks about any of that, thereby ensuring the planet would be doomed. And that absolutely cannot be allowed to happen. As terrible and frightening as the problems are, the only way we can do anything about them is if we continue the fight and ensure that there are others to continue the fight after we ourselves are gone.
Of course yes, that means bringing them into a world where they have to deal with realities such as climate change, but the only way for that problem to be solved is to ensure there are people who care and are willing to do something about it.
The same is true with concerns over overpopulation/fully-developed nation resource consumption. Yes, it is true that those of us in fully industrialized nations consume tremendously more than our fair share of resources. Thus one solution might appear to be to not have children so as to reduce that strain. However, that's short-sighted as if everyone who actually had concerns about the environment followed that approach then the only people having children would be those that don't give a fuck about any of that and thus if anything the chance of the world being fucked by that would go up under such a philosophy, and not down--it has no lasting impact. The only way to make a lasting multi-generational impact is not only if you yourself take up the fight and reduce your resource consumption the best you can but you also take the temporary hit of increasing the population in the short-term to make sure that there are those to continue to advocate for those causes after your gone and reach out to people about them and try and make a difference and continue to make progress, and that we're not left with only the people who don't give a fuck being the only ones having children and propagating and reproducing their ideas as well without a concern in the world.
Of course, like I said, I'm still deeply concerned about all that and what the effects of climate change will be and what impact that will have on the lives of my kids when I have them, since they'll be the ones who will have to live with all that and not me. But nonetheless, as scared as I am about all that, I can't reconcile that with the conclusion that if people like you and I make that choice, then it follows that in that scenario it will only be people like Trump having kids and propagating their ideas. And indeed, as it stands, in the United States for example, it's groups like deeply evangelical/fundamentalist Christians or Mormons that tend to have some of the larger family sizes and stuff like climate change doesn't tend to be among their top priorities (of course, that's not the case for all of them! But statically, and based on the way these groups vote, it applies far more often than not).
And I just can't be comfortable with that. Because if I choose not to have kids, when I die, I'll be gone, true, and it won't be "my problem" anymore, so it would be easy to not care about what comes next. But regardless the world would keep on turning and while people like you and I would be gone it would be people like the Trump's children who have their hands on the world in that scenario and as concerned as I might be about stuff like climate change, I just am even less comfortable with that, since it changes nothing at best and at worst makes things even worse.
Of course, the one thing that gives me hope about all this is that we humans are tremendously resource, persistent, and tenacious. Just think about our history. We've been fighting against one thing or another our entire brief existence on this planet thus far. And no matter how difficult the fights were, no matter how low the chances were, no matter how bleak things looked and how easy it would be to just stop and give up, we kept going anyway. Because whether you call it stupidity or bravery, foolishness or tenacity, ignorance or perseverance, or whatever terms you afford to that quality, it seems to be a deeply rooted part of the human condition regardless. And indeed, whether it be war or plague, famine or drought, or aiming larger and whether it's possible for us to reach into outer space and other words, not only have we not given up, but we've persevered and found some way to overcome those challenges. It's not easy, it's not pleasant, and there are lots of casualties along the way, but we've always done it. And thus, for the sake of those who fought in the past but are no longer with us, for their sacrifices and efforts to not be in vain, and for the sake of the future, which we've always fought for and always have managed to find no matter how hard it is, we have to keep going, and we will, just like we have before.
So, TL
R: Yeah, I totally get how you're feeling and have had many of those same thoughts myself. But those are reasons if anything for why people like you and I have to be willing to have kids if anything, not reason against it, no matter how scared we might be about our children's futures, in order to ensure that those sentiments don't die with us and that there are always people to keep carrying that torch. We might not want to burden them with that heavy weight, and that's understandable, but nonetheless our duty to do so to pay back the efforts of all of those who are responsible for us being able to live our lives today the way we do (e.g., the people who grow/slaughter and prepare our food so we don't have to, the people who pave our roads so others can have other jobs, the people who build our cars, the people who build our infrastructure and the buildings we use everyday and all the labor of everyone else that is responsible for us being able to live our daily lives the way we do that we usually take for granted but we nonetheless depend on and would not be able to live our lives the way we do were this not the case), to pay back the sacrifices of those who came before us to get us to where we are now, and to make sure those in the future can have at least as a good a life of us if not better and if that's not the case then to fight to restore those norms. That's both the social contract and at the very heart as a human being. And personally... as terrifying as that is from one respect, I can't help but love it from another. Because looking back at our brief history thus far and looking what we've overcome in the past, I can't help but be optimistic that whatever problems our children face they'll be able to overcome as well and that as scary as things may be at a specific moment that as long as we continue to fight, it will all work out and no matter what happens, it will be alright.
I don't know if any of that will help give you peace or not, but they're the conclusions I've come to so I hope they're at least helpful in some respect or another.
