Fair Start Movement

Category: Conservation & Environmental Justice

  • Promoting Smaller Families

    Promoting Smaller Families

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    Planning smaller families is the most effective way to reduce climate-changing emissions and to slow the degradation of the environment in which you, your children, and other families’ children will live.

    According to a story on NPR’s All Things Considered,

    [S]lowing population growth could eliminate one-fifth to one-quarter of all the carbon emissions that need to be cut by midcentury to avoid that potentially catastrophic tipping point.

    …

    Oregon State University researchers have calculated the savings from all kinds of conservation measures: driving a hybrid, driving less, recycling, using energy-efficient appliances, windows and light bulbs. For an American, the total metric tons of carbon dioxide saved by all of those measures over an entire lifetime of 80 years: 488. By contrast, the metric tons saved when a person chooses to have one fewer child: 9,441.

    Smaller families also result in parents who have more time and energy to invest in the children they already have. And everyone will benefit from the less crowded communities smaller families will create, communities where each one of our voices has more of a chance to be heard.

    But it’s not enough for thoughtful and caring people to make this choice. The worst possible outcome would be for parents who care about the future to have smaller families, while those who don’t care do the opposite. Parents who lack empathy for future generations will instill in their own kids that same disregard for the larger community, endangering all of us. That’s why it’s time to have a public conversation about family planning, family models, and what’s best for everyone. It’s right to do so because the decision affects every one of us—and every one of our kids.

    Don’t be afraid to speak out in support of smaller families. You can start by telling your friends you’ve adopted the Having Kids model. The children who will grown and thrive in a clean future environment will thank you for breaking the silence.

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  • How Does Family Planning Protect the Environment?

    How Does Family Planning Protect the Environment?

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    How does family planning protect our environment? This is the question researchers at the Worldwatch Institute recently set out to answer. Their findings may provide the key to addressing many of the environmental crises we face today.

    Robert Engelman, project director, found that while their “group assessment of recent scientific literature did not ‘prove’ that family planning promotes environmental sustainability, we found plenty of supporting evidence that it is helpful,” including the effectiveness of increased use of contraception — especially long-acting reversible contraceptives — by young Americans.

    The Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability Assessment (FPESA) provides vital and hard evidence addressing the often-taboo subject of how family planning affects the world’s environments. This information helps support the work of any organization addressing the role of family planning in achieving things like the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change mitigation, the protection of the most at-risk ecosystems, and more.

    As the Assessment suggests, sometimes seemingly unrelated issues — like decisions about creating a family and the future of the world’s environment — are deeply intertwined. Having Kids seeks to make these connections as we work to create a more sustainable future for us all.

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  • Skip the Toys and Plant Trees Instead

    Skip the Toys and Plant Trees Instead

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    To celebrate the birth of the first child of King Khesar and Queen Jetson, households in Bhutan planted trees. The move comes as part of a larger initiative in Bhutan, which has pledged to remain carbon neutral. It’s holding up its promise by becoming one of the few countries in the world to have negative carbon emissions.

    Having a child? Maybe skip some of the toys, clothes, and other things kids don’t need as much as a safe future in which he or she will thrive… and plant trees instead. The Having Kids model supports forward thinking like this.

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  • The Oceans Our Kids Will Play In: Hot, Acidic, and Empty?

    The Oceans Our Kids Will Play In: Hot, Acidic, and Empty?

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    We hear a lot about rising temperatures over land as our planet’s atmosphere continues to degrade, in large part thanks to a population headed towards ten billion people by 2050. But the fact is that our oceans are in many ways ground zero for climate change. They’ve continued to warm and become more acidic after absorbing much of the heat and carbon dioxide caused by human growth. New studies also show that, while the oceans themselves are changing, the fishing industry worldwide is decimating whole fisheries to feed the world’s growing population. Yet in the face of all of this change, some are pushing for even larger families and even more consumption:

    The UN population division’s latest work on low-fertility and aging is eye popping and is meant to inform policy makers about their options. It includes ominous predictions about economic and social ills and shows how the crisis is most acute in countries that are poorest. “Population aging must be understood and addressed by all countries,” John Wilmoth, the lead demographer at the UN Population Division, said at a gathering at UN headquarters in November.

    At Having Kids we value our oceans, nature, and a safe, clean, and healthy future for children over the unsustainable and population-fueled economic growth that has lead us where we are today. It’s time to move towards a better model of parenting and to stand against those whose greed threatens our oceans, our children, and our future.

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  • Mixed Messages on Climate Change & Unsustainable Growth

    Mixed Messages on Climate Change & Unsustainable Growth

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    We’re hearing mixed messages about the state of our planet and the people on it. On the one hand, census reports show that the United States, which is struggling to deal with its current carbon footprint in order to protect future generations from climate change, will become a lot more crowded in years to come. Yet some thought leaders in Washington are pushing for faster growth “because it will help us sustain our labor force” and “increase consumer demand for lots of products that young people and young adults and young householders need.” 

    Businesses may benefit in the short term from a growing supply of workers competing against each other for jobs and long lines of customers to buy their goods and services, but the long term effects are much less clear. The approach raises many questions and highlights the mixed messages we’re receiving. Doesn’t this growth make it harder to mitigate climate change, which is already a major issue? Does having more kids mean less time and energy will be invested in each child? How does crowding affect kids’ quality of life, the connection between people and their community, their connection to nature, and our ability to work together to define the future? Are we all better off, in the long run, with small families working together to invest more in each child?

    These are important questions, and they need answering. Let’s start the conversation

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  • What if you could help children and parents, protect the environment, and let people be more free and equal, all at the same time?

    What if you could help children and parents, protect the environment, and let people be more free and equal, all at the same time?

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    You can.

    It’s called the Responsible Parenting model, and it’s simple: Smaller families work together to invest more in each child.

    For example, parents can use part of the resources they would have spent having a third child to instead connect with and help other parents plan for and invest in a collegiate scholarship trust for their first or second child.

    When smaller families connect using the Responsible Parenting model it makes everyone more free. The model frees children by giving them a better start and more opportunities in life, frees parents by giving them more time off while also protecting their children’s future, and frees all of us by building smaller, sustainable, and more connected communities where each person has more of a say in their governments and their lives.

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