Should we bring kids into a tough climate?
Adoption is an alternative nobody's talking about.
Have you noticed the growing discussion about couples choosing not to have children . . . because of climate change?
“How could I look my hypothetical child in the eye and acknowledge that I willingly brought them into a chaotic, increasingly uninhabitable world, that I knew all their favorite picture-book animals were going extinct?”
Thus says Katie O’Reilly (see below) in the best writing I’ve seen on the subject.
There are several attitude surveys out there; Morgan Stanley has published an analysis of how falling fertility rates affect investments; a growing number of interviewers are hearing stuff like “Older generations have helped create an unfair and terrifying future,” “Don’t want to bring a person into a nasty world,” and “The next generation is totally fucked; we can’t have kids.”
Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said a couple of years back that it’s a “legitimate question” to wonder if it’s still OK to have children given that “there’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult.”
THOSE THOUGHTS ACTUALLY GIVE ME HOPE!
This is the first time I’ve heard a deeply personal impact of climate change widely discussed! This hits close to the heart, operating in the realm of emotions, traditions, cultural expectations - after years of facts, figures and reasoning that have had so little impact. My concerns about the concrete and financial costs of climate change has created far less angst than I expect this new, very emotional concern will. And seeing climate change as a deeply personal threat may get people to see why we must force the powers that be to help defend us. Yes, it’s a hopeful development.
I’m cheered in a second way because the childbearing worry spotlights a win-win solution - adoption! It’s a solution about which I can speak personally. Of Buddy’s three ‘young masters’ two are adopted, one from South Korea, one from Russia. (And of course Buddy’s adopted too!) My wife and I chose to adopt for the traditional reason; after one birth child we were unable to conceive again. But even for a couple who can conceive, adoption can salve the angst they may feel about climate change.
Adoption does not usher a child into a declining world; that child is already here.
A FEW PREDICTIONS
Very soon the idea of adoption will be spotlighted by this growing angst about having kids. The search results for “adoption” “climate change” are almost non-existant today; I expect they’ll be searched together very soon.
Demand for adoptions will go up quickly and, when that happens, adoptions will suddenly be more difficult and competitive. In the US, adoption has been steadily declining, and COVID has only accellerated the drop. Reversing this trend will call for a lot more adoption agencies and professionals to handle the critical and sometimes difficult counselling, assessment, and legal processes.
Traditional sources of international adoptions will be slow to provide a growing volume of infants and children. Over the past two decades the largest sources - China, Russia, Guatemala, South Korea and Ethiopia - have made foreign adoptions more difficult.
Around the world people are being pushed from their homes in ever greater numbers, by local strife, cimate change, or other causes, and the number of parentless children around the world is increasing. We may see refugee groups becoming a new source of adoptees.
Integrating an older child into a family can be more challenging than an infant, but the Stookeys are proof that it works. Our Korean son was five and our Russian son ten when they joined us. They are happy and productive Americans - not to mention loving masters of their dog Buddy.
BEAT THE ADOPTION RUSH!
If these predictions are right, maybe the best advice for would-be parents beset by climate doubts is “Don’t wait. Start a dialog with a good adoption agency.”
LEARN, THINK, ACT
Read Katie O’Reilly’s full article.
A comprehensive sources of advice about adoption.
I received this comment via email: "David: Thanks for this most interesting message. I don't know if you saw the NYT's Opinion page last Wednesday but there were three letters right on point. Adoption came up with a figure - 400,000 children in foster homes in the U.S. waiting to be adopted." John
Coincidentally, after I pressed the Publish button on this story, I was listening to a radio interview about abortion. One intervieweee pointed out that adoption should not be called a WIn-Win. In most cases the parent or parents giving up the child consider it a loss! Forced upon them by circumstances, personalities, finances, and other negative factors - perhaps even pressures from climate change.
Rather than simply editing out my 'win-win' wording, I thought I'd acknowledge and emphasize my mistaken choice of words - and thinking.