The Rural Voice, 2019-06, Page 18 Recently my wife said something
that shocked me. “If I were a young
person today, I might not have kids.”
What?! I immediately thought of our
own two children, now in their 30s,
and the prospect of not having them
in our lives. They were a delight to
raise (well, mostly) and continue to
bring us unbounded joy. Life is
unimaginable without them.
What my wife said next placed
her jolting words into a context I
could appreciate. “What kind of
world, what future, are we leaving
young people when global collapse
caused by a warming climate seems
imminent?” On her mind was the
April report by Environment and
Climate Change Canada which stated
that, on average, Canada is
experiencing warming at twice the
rate of the rest of the world, and
Northern Canada three times the rate.
Also in my wife’s thoughts was
the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) October
2018 jaw-dropping report warning
that the planet’s average temperature
is rising faster than previously
thought and, without urgent action,
will almost certainly result in a
global cataclysm.
We need only look in our own
backyard for evidence of pending
climate change-caused catastrophe.
The past decade has seen an
astonishing run of record-
breaking storms, forest fires,
droughts, heat waves, and floods in
Canada and around the world.
Scientists say the situation can only
get worse.
Climate change deniers take note:
These projections are not mere
theoretical musings. They are born of
detailed scientific analyses of real
time events and trends by thousands
of climate scientists the world over.
To deny the facts is irresponsible at
best and – I think many young people
might say – almost unforgiveable.
I say young people, because my
wife was also reflecting the thoughts
of a growing number of youths who,
alarmed by such dire
prognostications, are having trouble
seeing much of a future for
themselves let alone their children.
Many feel it might be morally and
ethically irresponsible to even have
children.
Whirlwind 29-year-old U.S.
Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
who is pressing for a Green New
Deal to help fight climate change,
broached the topic recently on
Instagram. “There’s scientific
consensus that the lives of children
are going to be very difficult, and it
does lead, I think, young people to
have a legitimate question – is it
okay to still have children?”
Many youths are angry and feel
that adults and the governments they
elected are letting them down by
failing to take the kind of action
needed to avoid climate
“Armageddon” in their lifetimes.
They feel their lives are being
disregarded, even stolen.
Some psychologists talk about the
debilitating emotional effect that
global warming is having on young
people. Many youths, they say, feel
scared and paralyzed and think
there’s nothing they can do. They
feel like the world as we know it is
going to end and that the planet’s
living creatures are going to die.
“I once spoke to a young child and
asked him why he was protesting
[climate change], said Aliénor
Rougeot, a second-year student at the
University of Toronto, in an
interview in a March 13, Canada’s
National Observer. “He looked at me
and said, ‘I want a future.’ In my
head it was a ‘duh’ moment, but why
don’t our governments get it?”
To their credit, an increasing
number of young people are rising
through the anxiety and torpor by
organizing protests. “We really can’t
dream about the future without first
addressing the climate crisis,” said
grade 11 student and global warming
activist Rebecca Hamilton, in the
14 The Rural Voice
Planet “B” is
not an option
Gary Kenny is
an organic
farmer, writer,
editor and
president of the
Grey County
Local of the
NFU-O
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