Why We Should Act Now for Our Climate

There is something about this, the street I live on now with its dying forest, its shrieking signs of “Fire!” and “Danger!” that I find disturbing. It’s not what you’d think, the warnings of a climate crisis grown ever nearer. No, what I dislike is found on the other side of the street, on lampposts that push their posters at me. “For our kids,” they say with the Canadian ending “.ca”. And “are you scared for your kids’ climate future?”

In these days there have been a number of comments about children, stemming from down south but from politicians here as well, about whether you can think about the future if you don’t have them. About whether you can make future-related policies without having children. Implied is that you can’t; without offspring you won’t care about our world at all. Without offspring you can’t govern.

I find that train of thought disturbing.

It is as if children are the only stakes women can have with regards to the world.

It is as if children are the only signs we have of caring.

It is as if without children we will simply fade away, making no world changes, positive or negative.