Over 3,360 left-wing youths have pledged to refrain from having children due to the supposed climate crisis.
Canadian teen activist Emma Lim created the pledge, dubbed #NoFutureNoChildren.
“I pledge not to have children until I am sure my government will ensure a safe future for them,” the petition signers vowed.
Lim posted her “story” to the pledge’s website, outlining her love for children and fear of climate change. The 18-year-old suggested folks currently having children are questionable parents because there is, at the moment, no way to ensure their safety from climate-related disaster.
“I’ve always imagined I would be a mother,” Lim said. “I know that for a lot of people, the decision to have children is something made later on in life, but for me it was never something I had to think about. I love children so much that I worked as a nanny over the summer between eleventh and twelfth grade.”
“There are all of these little things I can see myself doing: singing to my babies, listening to their stories, working through homework, baking, finger painting, going for nature walks, dancing in the kitchen — and it hurts almost like a physical pain when I realize I might never get to do these things,” she continued. “Because even though I want to have children more than almost anything — what kind of a mother would I be if I brought a baby into a world where I couldn’t make sure they were safe?”
After reading the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in September, Lim became “terrified.”
“I’m only a teenager, so I’ve learned about climate change for as long as I can remember. I’ve seen it all around me too,” she claimed. “In my province once in a century floods have started to happen every year. There are heatwaves in the summer, and in the winter we’re not able to skate on the pond anymore.”
“But the truth is that we are in so much more danger than I could have imagined,” Lim wrote. “We are facing changes that will be irreversible: the loss of ecosystems, the loss of fresh water, the loss of clean air.”
“I want my children to be free to chase their dreams, but everything will be more expensive with climate change,” Lim wrote. “I am facing a future of economic instability, of food scarcity and extreme weather. What if I have to sacrifice my child’s education to pay for a new house? What if my house becomes uninsurable? What if I have to pay for clean water? What if my city becomes unsafe and I have to flee or if my baby is sick, but the hospitals are overflowing with people fleeing worse conditions?? For many people these fears are already reality.”
“I am giving up my chance of having a family because I will only have children if I know I can keep them safe,” Lim declared. “It breaks my heart, but I created this pledge because I know I am not alone. I am not the only young person giving up lifelong dreams because they are unsure of what the future will hold. We’ve read the science, and now we’re pleading with our government.”
Other youths shared their stories, too.
“Because It is simply inhumane to force a child into the world post ecological collapse,” wrote 13-year-old Max Smith, who lives in London. “I know that I wouldn’t want to be brought into the world now, and that’s why I will dedicate myself to tackling the climate crisis and pledge to not have children until the climate crisis is dealt with.”
“The science is clear: we are about to witness the destruction of everything we love because of the climate crisis,” claimed 20-year-old Allie Rougeot of Toronto. “I feel incapable of welcoming an innocent human being into this world knowing the facts. This is very hard to say as a 20 year old but it is impossible for me to think otherwise given the level of denial and poor action at this stage.”
Jacob Diercks, an 18-year-old from Germany, wrote: “I see it as irresponsible to bring children into such dangers. Our government is doing too little to protect the climate and thus our region. Where I live will be flooded soon and there is nothing I can do to save this place for my children.”
“Why should future generations have to go through the mess our own government and people created?” Alexandra Peterson, 19, asked.