Some 60 people have joined a new group called BirthStrike saying they are too worried about the consequences of a coming “ecological collapse to have children”.
BirthStrike says it is both a statement and a solidarity group.
Blythe Pepino, 33, told the BBC why she founded the group. “I’m terrified. Our planet is in a kind of collapse.
“The natural world is collapsing around us and that’s actually happening right now. And I’m so disappointed by the response by authorities to this crisis, and so freaked out by it. Everything I’ve read that basically last year I came to the decision that I couldn’t bring a child into that.
According to her website, Pepino, made the choice against motherhood because of her social conscience. “I do have a partner and would like to have children with him. We’re really in love and it feels like the right thing to do.
“But last year I read the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and I realized how wrong it would be to bring a child into a world on the brink of catastrophe. Now we are looking for other women and men who feel the same way to join us.” She did not comment on her husband’s wishes.
Pepino told the BBC: “It’s a very hard emotional message to decide not to have kids but I hope it might break through the fear and diffidence that surrounds this subject. There is a powerful cognitive dissonance around climate – our everyday lives seem normal but we are talking about a major destructive event.”
She added: “I was concerned that no one outside my circle would probably care because I’m a white middle-class leftie female with those kinds of friends. But we wanted to put it out there and see who might get in touch. Are there lots of people who feel this way, or is it just my echo chamber?”
Alice Brown of Bristol, England, is another Pepino sycophant. “I am depressed every day because of the ecological crisis and I’m terrified of passing this burden on to a child,” she explained. “There could be 10 percent of nature left when my child is growing up. That is incredibly dangerous. We’re already at tipping point and I can’t see a safe world for children.”
She added: “I cannot pass this danger, uncertainty, depression and darker world onto someone else. I am so unhappy in the society we’ve created, where we are just destroying everything that keeps us alive – spearheaded by our ‘leaders,’ a delusional system and upside down priorities.
“I cannot imagine how scared our kids are going to be. I’m gutted to not be able to start my family, and I resent that our self-destruction and planetary destruction all for greed and ‘economic growth’ has stopped me from doing this. I’m 24 and instead of dreaming about my career and family, I’m burdened with the disease we’ve created. My decision not to have a child I truly feel is a necessity not a choice.”
BirthStrike has issued its own declaration, stating that: “We, the undersigned, declare our decision not to bear children due to the severity of the ecological crisis and the current inaction of governing forces in the face if this existential threat. Insecurity of future, despair at our species’ relationship to our habitat and each other, channelling time into activism and rebellion, are all common motivations.”
The statement also includes other fearmongering catchphrases such as “ecological Armageddon”, “no future” and “species-wide suicide”. But white births have been in decline. As of 2016, the total population of Africa is estimated at 1,225 billion, representing 17 percent of the world’s population.
According to UN estimates, the population of the African continent may reach 2,5 billion by 2050 (about 26 percent of the world’s total) and nearly 4,5 billion by 2100 (about 40 percent of the world’s total). Yet there have been no public voices calling for Africans to have fewer children.
Last week, across the Atlantic, US lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also questioned having children: “Is it OK to still have children?”
American conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh responded that Ocasio-Cortez’s remark lacked maturity. “She is tremendously deficient in terms of, I think, maturity development and intellectual development because she gets these accolades and star-status treatment, there’s no reason for her to continue to grow.”
“She’s out there using this junior junior-high-school-student voice proclaiming all kinds of dire circumstances. It really is like listening to a child.”
Ocasio-Cortez has been pushing hard for a climate change solution by introducing a “Green New Deal”. The bill calls for a “10-year national mobilizations” toward accomplishing a series of goals. Among the most prominent is meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office earlier explicitly described “farting cows” as a key contributor in wiping out the planet.
“We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero, emissions in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast,” the document originally noted, but was later removed in the official proposal submitted to Congress.
She was recently seen dining out with her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, who has been the brains behind her rise from cocktail waitress to congresswoman, and he was eating a thick meaty burger. Strangely, she did not seem to mind at all.
So @CalebJHull is posting pictures of @AOC Ocasio-Cortez out to dinner with her Chief of Staff, he’s having a hamburger pic.twitter.com/ZcS5r1E7Co
— Honorable J Minear (@MinearNY) February 27, 2019