The Drive—and the Right?—to Conceive

Population and the Environment – Blogpost #1 – 7/8/11

The Drive—and the Right?—to Conceive

“For those of us who both want to increase people’s freedom to limit their family size and save the planet from catastrophic climate change, a recent report from the London School of Economics indicating that condom distribution is five times more cost effective than green technologies in reducing carbon emissions seems like unalloyed good news. More freedom, cleaner world---simple, right? But if you have even the barest understanding of the history of arguments involving population control, suddenly it’s not so simple anymore.”
“Is Fear of Population Control Trumping Green Solutions?” by Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check, September 29, 2009 - 7:00am. http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/09/29/is-fear-population-control-trumping-green-solutions. Accessed 7/8/11.

My husband and I have been using condoms for all our married life. They have worked for us. But now, in my thirties, finding my eyes linger every time I see a baby in a mother’s arms, there are nights I wish the darn rubber would break. I’m hearing the tick of the baby clock. In spite of what I know about a human population that continues to grow past sustainable limits, my body yearns for a child. This, for those who know me, makes absolutely no sense.

I have eyes. American kids in my neighborhood are as tricked out as their parents. I get that the wealthiest twenty percent are responsible for 76% of the world’s total private consumption, while the poorest twenty percent consume only 1.5% . Global Issues, http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism. Accessed 7/8/11.) I’m an affluent lady. My child would probably be part of that demographic.

I read, too. A few years ago, the UN estimated that if current population trends continue, the earth will see 27 billion people by 2100. (Australian National Affairs, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/the-ghost-of-thomas-malthus-hovers-over-unsustainable-global-population-increases/story-fn59niix-1226085168885>. Accessed 7/8/11.) Do I want to sentence a child to life on a planet with that many people?

But if the condom breaks, or if we leave the little bugger in the bedside drawer, I might conceive. In nine months (!) I might be nursing a baby of my own. How fast that could come to pass, and the intense pull I feel to experience this—how can these feelings be happening to me even when I understand how population growth and global warming are interconnected?

And I could console myself with a different statistic. The Pew Research Center reported in 2010 that one-in-five American women now end their child-bearing years without having had a child. Only women in academics have slightly increased the number of children they are having. (Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-the-wild-things-are/201007/the-right-bear-or-not-bearchildren. Accessed 7/8/11.) Maybe, given this statistic, I could have a baby or two. I’d be in the minority.

It would be so simple to work on our looming environmental catastrophe if humans willingly chose to have fewer children. Within as few as three generations, we could significantly reduce the earth’s human population. And if the most affluent had fewer children, an immediate reduction in resource consumption would provide a boost to environmental efforts.

And yet, I’m just a private person—not powerful, or a population expert. I cannot possibly hope to influence others on this issue. And just by sharing these thoughts, I am likely to receive messages from those convinced I am unaware how reducing the U.S. population means we will be overrun by supposedly uncontrolled numbers of humans who do not look like ‘us’ or live like ‘us’ or believe it is their human duty to balance human drives with realities on our little blue planet.

So I write here as a single voice, keeping company with a man I love and who wants to ask questions like these. I do not presume to say what others should do. I don’t know what we will decide about having a child. But I think that it has never been so important for private individuals to ask these questions. We’re doing our best to make our decision here at the micro level with our eyes wide open and all rose colored glasses left on the dresser.

So I’m asking: does my drive to have a child give me the right to forget about the larger global reality that would surround my pregnancy and the life of my child?

Just asking.