Does Climate Change Mean I Can’t Have Kids?

My mother looked around my kitchen, at the matzo ball soup simmering on the stove and the social justice Haggadahs at every place setting. Over them stood Bubbe’s silver candlesticks, the only things she brought from Poland when fleeing pogroms in the 1910s.

This year, I’ve begun to question if I can have
children, not in the biological sense, but ethically. 

“Grandpa would be so proud that you’re carrying on the traditions,” Mom said. Though I was sweaty, tired, and nervous about the seder, her comment made it all worth it.

I’ve become the default host for Jewish holidays in my family. At some point in my 20s, I realized that if I didn’t do them, no one else would. I remember thinking — as I attempted to make my first round challah — that I needed to be able to host these gatherings for my future children.

Read the Asparagus story by Jessie Szalay - “Does Climate Change Mean I Can’t Have Kids?”

(Sydney-based climate scientist, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, talks about this, and other issues on the “Climate Conversations" podcast)