Younger generations are responding to the climate and other ecological crises by doing the most effective thing possible: Choosing smaller families. And while that’s great, there is still a lot of work to be done today, like enshrining the change in our laws and policies, and twisting the quantitative trend to make it more qualitatively equitable, by taking the resources necessary to fund cooperative family planning systems that give every kid a Fair Start.

So who’s pushing back against this change? The obvious culprits are governments and big businesses that built their power on an unsustainable wave of new consumers, cheap future labor, and complaint taxpayers.

But another category includes older generations – the ones that failed to prevent the population explosion driving the climate crisis – who can’t see beyond their way of doing things. The Independent featured a great example recently, with an author bemoaning how smaller families threaten the bonds of siblinghood. Should we risk the ecological collapse of our planet because we are unable to raise kids capable of bonding beyond their own blood relations? Perhaps we need to think out of the boxes the created the mess we find ourselves in today, and think of bonding and community in more advanced and sustainable ways.

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