Posted on 07/01/2022 6:21:29 PM PDT by DoodleBob
I’ve always struggled to combine the idea of personal responsibility with the overwhelming need for human society to address the threat posed by climate change. Since at least the 1970s, the massive energy corporations responsible for the vast majority of our carbon emissions have known about, and done nothing to mitigate, the harm they cause.
Because they own politicians worldwide, there doesn’t appear to be any will to take government-level action. But I’m supposed to turn off a light? What possible impact could that ever have? And why is all this on my shoulders and not theirs?
When I got engaged, my fiancée, Virginia, and I started planning for the future. It wasn’t just my dog Wiley and me against the world anymore. All of a sudden, I started thinking ten to 20 or more years ahead.
Children are an obvious thing to plan. With a sudden focus on responsible decision-making, it no longer made sense to leave hypothetical future offspring up to chance. When should we have them? What did our careers look like on that timeline? Who’d be responsible for staying home and raising them? Couldn’t we just have one of the dogs do that?
We got engaged in June 2018, a couple months before a wildfire destroyed an entire town in California and another one wiped out sections of Malibu. Shortly after that, most of the Mississippi River basin flooded, something that might be the new normal, virtually eliminating the future for industrial agriculture throughout a region that produces much of this nation’s food. And, of course, the whole Donald Trump thing has been going on.
Is this a world we want to bring kids into? Is this a world it’s responsible to bring kids into?
It looks like the pace of climate change is speeding ahead of science’s ability to understand or forecast it. Thinking about hypothetical Wes Jr.’s life as far into the future as I’ve already lived—38 years—it’s tempting to try to forecast stuff like so many feet of sea-level rise or the extinction of some keystone species. But that may not be possible. The future might be worse than any of us currently fear.
Then Virginia and I started talking about something we could do—for ourselves and to make a meaningful impact on the bigger problem. We could just forego the whole kid thing altogether.
The image of personal climate change action doesn’t really match the reality. If I gave up my 15 mpg pickup truck—basically the mascot for climate inaction—and rode my bicycle everywhere, I’d save the planet 2.4 tons of carbon emissions a year. That’d be a massive sacrifice, but it’s nowhere near the carbon emissions I’ll save by skipping becoming a daddy, which comes in at around 58 tons annually, per kid. Any other action we could take, even all the actions we could ever possibly add up together, pale in comparison.
That’s because there are simply too many humans on this planet. We’ve all been told that driving an electric car or putting solar panels on our roofs will help, but that involves buying more stuff, which has a terrible impact on the environment, no matter how green the image. Two people deciding to make fewer humans eliminates the entire cycle of consumption that would fuel that kid’s life.
All those people ultimately represent the greatest climate change–related threat. Burning forests and flooded beach houses are sad and all, but it’s the human conflict created by dwindling resources needed to sustain the population that stands to really change life on this planet. We’re already fighting wars for oil. Many think wars for water will be next, and those are going to hit closer to home.
So, we’re not having kids. I found a colleague’s brother here in Bozeman who performs vasectomies and made an appointment. I was afraid of getting my scrotum operated on, but the procedure ended up being quicker and less invasive than most dental appointments. I took off my pants, laid on a bed, received a local anesthetic, chatted with the doctor while he made a few incisions, then got a ride home. Once the anesthetic wore off, it felt like someone had kicked me in the balls pretty good, a feeling that dissipated over the next seven days. I took a Valium before the surgery and a few handfuls of ibuprofen afterward but otherwise didn’t need painkillers or even an ice pack. The worst part was taking a week off from the gym; I’d been making good progress.
It might not be enough to save the polar bear, and it might not prevent the next Camp Fire, but this is the absolute biggest difference we can make. We need fewer humans, and getting there voluntarily will be an awful lot less painful than doing it with war, famine, and natural disaster.
I say we start a new hashing. From #metoo to #youfirst.
Why didn’t he get a hysterectomy too, just to be double-sure.
Lose weight.. those pounds don’t drive themselves to Starbucks. 15% body fat will do. Remove vestigial organs.
“..for our Planet!” lol!
Is he worshiping a pagan rock called Earth?
Respecting and learning from nature is fine.
That’s different than creating a shrine or a totem.
Probably too dumb to raise a child properly, anyway. Good move, dude!
I want to laugh at this guy. But he’s the same kind of guy that will sabotage a gas pipeline or firebomb your house to save the planet. So he’s more than just silly. He’s both silly and dangerous.
Side note to Mr. Siler: Every topic in science has two sides. When it comes to aClimate Change, you are only being given one side. The other side is being suppressed. That’s fascist behavior.
Please do yourself, your family, and the world a favor. Examine that other side.
Just don’t have sex....da....
Don’t stop there, now pull your lower lip over your head and swallow!
This reminds me of a cartoon strip I saw years ago: A father is waiting at a bus stop with a brood of rowdy children. A haughty man in a business suit tells him that he and his wife had decided not to have children; he said it was a matter of “saving the planet.” The father tells him that he and his wife decided to have a large family, and said it was a natter of “survival of the fittest.”
Inferior genes in the genepool self-eliminating ... gotta love it.
the face palm is not enough for this one.
If we can convince certain men to get snipped “because of da white man” we would all be better off. How can we do this?
I wonder if we always were. Now, we just have the means of reading about it 24/7.
That’s not commitment. Commitment is whacking yer danglers with a ball peen hammer. That’s commitment. The earth will thank you.
Liberal logic:
“We got engaged b/c it seemed like adulting.
A wild fire happened in California*.
Therefore we shall not have children.”
*likely due to poor forestry practices rather than 👏🏻CLIMATE CHANGE👏🏻
Outside Magazine columnist, and adventure travel writer Wes Siler teaches a new generation of enthusiasts how to lead more exciting lives outdoors. Wes has contributed to magazines like Wired, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Outdoor Life, GQ, Road&Track, and Playboy, websites like Jalopnik and Gizmodo, and founded the motorcycle site Hell For Leather and outdoors site IndefinitelyWild. Wes has hosted web shows funded by YouTube and Outside, presented television commercials for brands like Toyota and Aprilia, and appears as a subject matter expert on channels like CNN, CBS, ABC, and Fox News. His testicles are the subject of Glenn Beck’s most recent book. Wes lives in the mountains of southwest Montana with his wife Virginia, and their three rescue dogs.
He travels a lot, and apparently now has three dogs. Rescues, don’t ya know.
Best decision for the rest of us, too, Wes.
No need for there to be more of ya...
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