To my future daughter Delilah,
I wish to have you one day regardless of the frightening climate disaster the world is heading towards. There are many arguments in my current year of 2022 on whether it is morally correct to have a child moving forward. The world is currently filled with so much uncertainty of what our future will look like and what is to come by the year 2050.
The governments have continued to fail the civilians and make them feel as though reducing their carbon footprint is what will help solve climate change, when that is not the case. The population’s carbon footprint is irrelevant until the government begins to drastically reduce emissions: “population is actually irrelevant to solving the climate crisis” (Samuel, 2021).
It is believed by many people that having more children will worsen the state of the climate, “adding a kid to the planet means adding another person who will contribute more emissions, plus their kids, their Grand kids, and so on” (Samuel, 2021). I disagree with the statement because I believe that the problem is not the civilians who cause emissions, but the fossil fuel industries and larger companies who continue to increase their profits.
Although, one thing I promise to do is raise you in a different environment than I was brought up. In order to help the climate crisis, there will be sacrifices made in my life moving forward that will also affect who you grow up to be. I will learn to reduce my over-consumption and decrease my standard of living for the better. Instead I will learn how to connect with nature through planting and creating my own nourishment.
I will decrease the amount I purchase at stores and restaurants. By the time you enter my life, the world will undergo severe consequences from climate change and no longer be the same as it is now in the year 2022. The atmosphere will be extremely hot, cities will have been flooded or there will be droughts, wildfires will increase and severe natural disasters will be present.
The scary reality of what is most likely to come is the reason I have debated so heavily if it is morally correct to bring you into this world: “I feel so desperately that it would be bringing a life into a future that does seem ever more desolate” (Hunt, 2019).
The life you will grow up to have will be challenging and a lot different than mine as we will not be able to travel the world, the economy will plummet, my income may be nonexistent, attending restaurants and nice places will most likely not be a thing. These all sound very negative and terrible, although I will fight for you to have a good life nevertheless. Will your childhood look different then mine? Yes, it will most definitely be, but maybe for the best.
We will start over and together learn what life should really be. The ideal life that I will work for the next 30 years to give you will begin with finding a safe area to live. Our family will live near one another and we will create a tight knit community. We will begin to create a farm so that we do not have to depend on an income or a polluting industry to survive. Technology will not be present in my future or your life as it is irrelevant to our survival, instead we will focus all of our pastime on planting trees and creating gardens. You will learn how to connect with nature, be around close family and provide for yourself. In the end, be a healthy and happy girl. I am looking forward to meeting you and creating this wonderful life beyond the atrocity created in the past.
