Are Babies Environmentally Sound?
Are babies environmentally sound? Well, now, there’s a question that can get people riled up. Reproduction is a sacred act and suggesting that someone shouldn’t have children is a good way to cause offense.
The main argument I have heard for not having children is that the world is overpopulated and we shouldn’t add to the problem. I think our planet probably is overpopulated, at least if we want to maintain our current standard of living. If it takes five Earth’s worth of resources to support our standard of living, we could either cut back on our individual usage by 4/5 or cut back on our population by 4/5. The problem is that there aren’t really any nice ways of cutting back on population. War, disease, famine, and massacres are effective but horrible. Mandatory birth control isn’t really much of an improvement. I think that education and access to birth control can go a long way and will continue to help in the future, but it’s a slow process. Even if everyone in the world dropped down to having 2 or 3 children per family, it would take several generations for population levels to decrease.
Babies also have a bad reputation as waste generators, although it doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways to keep a baby happy and healthy without mounds of plastic equipment and toys. The baby in this picture is Laurelynn, the daughter of my friends Maggie and Nathan. They are energetic young hippies who are striving to raise her without so many of the trappings of babyhood and I think they’re doing a great job. There are still many compromises, to be sure, but they try to keep things simple and minimalist. (Just FYI, this is an outdated picture; Laurelynn is now a fine young lady of 2 years and will probably be featured in future posts about gardening with toddlers.)
I personally have waffled a lot on the idea of whether or not to have kids. I think a lot of my waffling has tied in with how I felt about the world. The times when I’ve felt hopeless, having a baby seemed like a terrible idea. The times when things were looking up, having a baby seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Over the last few years I’ve been feeling a lot more hopeful, maybe because our society seems to finally be paying attention to the problems, even if we’re not very close to solutions. I also have felt less guilty about the idea of contributing to overpopulation, partly because I have friends who have chosen not to have children and have offered me their “child credits” and partly because I feel it’s important to show that it is possible to live green with kids. (Admittedly, part of it is the more selfish reason that I really want to experience pregnancy and childbirth, as odd as that sounds to some people.)
Will and I are thinking we would like to have one or two kids sometime in the future when we feel ready, assuming that we eventually feel ready. Environmental issues aside, babies pose a lot of challenges. Are we mature enough? Financially stable enough? Ready to adapt to a totally new lifestyle? Maybe not quite yet but we can imagine getting there. I’m hoping that having children will inspire us even more in our quest to live the good life. I am also excited about impacting the next generation. I do what I can to educate other people’s children through the environmental education work I do but I am sure my kids would get a much larger dose.
Of course, they might turn out like rebelling against it and being Exxon executives a la Family Ties. I’m willing to take my chances.
Linnea said,
May 8, 2008 @ 4:54 am
Knowing you, and knowing my family, I think it’s a pretty safe bet your kids’ll be land-lovers. I think a lot of what makes the difference is teaching responsibility vs. teaching guilt/obligation. Seriously, we were just held accountable. I might very well be the most “rebellious” of the three of us, and I’m pretty small potatoes.
Andy said,
May 8, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
What you mention at the end makes me think of an interesting problem. Those of us why worry about the effects of having children would likely raise them in a manner that uses less resources than the current average. Unfortunately, we are worried about the effects and will therefore raise less children. But then the people who don’t care about the impacts of having children will not be as concerned and will likely have more children. Ah! If the smart environmentalists are reproducing slower than the energy-wasters, how can we ever solve global issues!?
I really like this post. Population is a major concern I have. People focus on global warming and energy costs, but imagine what happens when we are in the same stage but living well over the carrying capacity of Earth. When we hear about China’s attempts, it seems so evil to make such limitations on amounts of children, but measures are needed now since this takes a few generations to make any difference. As sad as this is, I can do my bes to reduce my impact as much as possible, but someone else could have 5 children who grow up to be the opposite of me.
cinco said,
May 8, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
You can have my kid credits too.
I think responsible, caring people should have children and raise them to be the same way–but I do think, given the environmental and population crisis, people should limit their offspring to two children per family. That’s just IMHO, of course.
Also, for the record, I will totally spoil any children you have with tons of weird ecologically concious kid items like those how to make your own all-natural chewing gum kits. Oh man would I have fun finding things like that.
Emily said,
May 8, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
Having spent several years debating whether or not to have kids, I feel for you! What i discovered about myself is when I started citing reasons like “one average American child uses 125 times the resources of an average third-world child” and “instead of raising my own kids to be environmental champions, I’ll teach existing kids and adults to lessen their impact,” what I was really doing was fighting the societal expectation that I would have kids. You don’t need a reason to have kids in this country - but you sure need excuses why you’re not having kids!
My recommendation to people who are ambivalent about having kids is, “Ambivalent isn’t good enough.” There are lots of reasons to have kids, but perhaps even more reasons *not* to have kids - so if you feel like you’re talking yourself into having children, “just say no!”
arduous said,
May 8, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
I’m not ambivalent about having children. I definitely plan on having at least one. But I am ambivalent about whether or not to have my own biological children. On the one hand, like you, I am interested in going through the process of pregnancy and child birth. And there is the egotism of seeing your genes in your child.
OTOH, how egotistical am I really to have my own kids when there are so many kids in need of a good home?
I don’t have the answers, but continue to struggle.
Maggie said,
May 9, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
There are a lot of crazy societal pressures out there about having children. I think one of the best things we could do in this country would be to educate our children that it’s okay to grow up and not have children. Or have children. Either way is fine as long as you treat your children well. And it would be nice to slow down the childbirth rate amongst those who are less resource-conscious and increase it amongst those who are more green-oriented but it’s an interesting dilemma since most of the latter want few children.
I am egotistical too and would love to see my genes passed on. We’re pretty much bound to have blue-eyed babies who would undoubtedly grow much taller than me. I do tease Will sometimes that I should have married someone from the indigenous population of the Andes Mountains to mix up the genes a little and to have nice short, compact, efficient, UV-resistant children. But then he reminds me that he’s awesome and what more could a girl want?
Cheap Like Me said,
May 9, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
This is such a fraught issue, and a great post and comments. I have one child, and we were motivated partly by Bill McKibbon’s thought-provoking book “Maybe One.” And yet my heart often bemoans our one-child family … because at heart, people want (or do not want) the number of children that comes to them naturally. There is always adoption, which does not add to the population. Or a combination. Whatever is right for you will be right.
We have been told by many people that they appreciate thoughtful parents raising thoughtful children who will grow up to try to be a benefit to the world. I see that in our daughter already … at 7 she is conscious of global warming and saving animals and helping other people and recycling, as are many children today. And we even let her have fun, too!
Linnea said,
May 9, 2008 @ 7:50 pm
Maybe that alleged 1/64th Nez Perce will supply some UV protection…
Or, instead of having your own ’sedan’ kids, you could adopt some ’sports’ kids, or ‘mini’ kids (maybe even ‘hybrid’ kids?)
alex said,
May 9, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
Hey! Thanks for all the great info. I was browsing through a bunch of green websites and blogs and I came across yours and found it very interesting. There are a bunch of others I like too, like the daily green, ecorazzi and earthlab.com. I especially like EarthLab.com’s carbon calculator (http://www.earthlab.com/signupprofile/). I find it really easy to use (it doesn’t make me feel guilty after I take it). Are there any others you would recommend? Can you drop me a link to your favorites (let me know if they are the same as mine).
Maggie said,
May 10, 2008 @ 1:09 am
Ms. Cheap -
I would like to have at least two kids because I feel that people mature better when they have siblings, although several of my closests friends come from one-child families. I would definitely be open to adopting as an option for a larger family and I also like the idea of having close friends or family with kids so we could be like siblings. So many options!
Alex -
I must confess, I am not very good at keeping up with green websites or blogs. You might check out the blogs in our blogroll. They’re mostly people like us who are fairly “normal” but are trying to make a difference in the way they live their lives. Earthlab is pretty cool although I’ve been dreaming about writing my own algorithm that would be a little more holistic than just a 20-question quiz. But it’s hard to do. Good luck!
Jessica said,
May 13, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
I know all the arguments about the environmental impact of children, I used to make them myself. Then I had a child.
Now I want to have more. I can’t explain it. Maybe its because the first one wasn’t how I planned, and I want a do over. I don’t know. I think its more likely because I found that I liked being pregnant, I liked having a baby, and I like being a mommy. All my life I knew I wasn’t a competetor, I don’t do well in situations where the least bit of competition is required (probably why I’m still a Spc five years after I joined the Army), but I never knew until I had my son that there is an alternative. I’m a nurturer.
I know its selfish and unfair to have more than two babies, and in reality one would be more responsible, but I want to have more. Several more. Oh, I’m not abandoning my lifelong dream of adopting, but I am abandoning my old goal of only having one or two of my own. I’ll take as many as the fates will bless me with, I think.
But I won’t do any more for a while. I’m hoping that next time I’ll be married, at least. There are so many people not having babies, or only having one, that I can afford to have a few extra, right? Right? I read an article a couple of years ago about the levelling off and eventual shrinking of the human population expected to take place in the next decade or so due to increased awareness of family planning and birth control and the increased desire for couples to have only one or no children at all. If the population is expected to start declining, then theres room for me to have a big family. Right?
Oh, I know I’m selfish. No one else has to remind me.
As for living green with a baby, I’ve found that having my son has made me a million times more serious about reducing my impact and my son’s impact on the world. So much more serious, in fact, that my household impact might have decreased since having him. Its at least not grown very much at all.
Maggie said,
May 13, 2008 @ 6:45 pm
Jessica -
I think there are some folks out there who are just called to have lots of babies and I’m mostly cool with that. The key for me is that folks really *think* about it first. Besides, who am I to judge anyway? I try hard not to judge anyone but unfortunately I’m not very good at it.
I think kids can be super-motivating to live life more greenly, more slowly, more fully but there’s also lots of pressure to buy stuff. Somehow we’re all a little vulnerable to the idea that our children will suffer (or die!) if we don’t provide them with the proper material goods. Those darn marketers are pretty slick.
I’d love to see a strong vision of what the world would/could/will be like if we agree to level off our population and maybe reduce it. I’d like to see some information about what happens when we abandon the idea of perpetual growth in our population and our economy. It sounds like a good thing but it might turn conventional thinking on its ear and I hope we’ll be ready.
baby boy said,
May 15, 2008 @ 6:30 am
Some people don’t want babies, and that fine. But I don’t care about all the environmental problems because you can have a child and still care about the environment.
Linnea said,
May 18, 2008 @ 6:03 am
I dunno if you’ve read anything about the “quiver-full” people, but I just read an article about them and it made me think of this post. Check out http://www.quiverfull.com, it’s kinda disconcerting, and definitely makes me feel a little like they’re using up all my “kid credits”.
Maggie said,
May 19, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
Wow, I am alarmed to hear of groups still promoting having 12 or 13 children. It almost makes me feel like I should have a couple extra kids to try to balance out the majority opinion. However, I can’t imagine trying to deal with even 4 kids, let alone more than 10!