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Editor’s note: This story is part of a series on climate change in the Kansas City region produced by the KC Media Collective to support and enhance local journalism so every person in Kansas City can lead a richer life. The KC Media Collective consists of KCUR 89.3, American Public Square Kansas City PBS/Flatland Missouri Business Alert Startland News and The Kansas City Beacon.
Flatland, Catherine Hoffman and Nomin Ujiyediin from KCUR contributed to this article.
Naturally strong maternal instincts and a small baby doll always in hand earned Angelica Chavez-Duckworth the childhood nickname “Little Mommy,” she said. Now 26, the Kansas Citian isn’t so sure she’ll ever become a mother — keenly aware of a worsening climate crisis around her.
Angelica Chavez-Duckworth LivZero
“As a kid, I thought, ‘This is something I’m going to do, something I’m going to be.’ Fast forward to now — having to be in the space of contemplation because I don’t even know if I can protect my [younger] brother,” explained Chavez-Duckworth, the founder and principal of LivZero — a climate equity firm focused on developing intersectional climate solutions. “I can’t lie … I still want to have kids of my own. But it becomes more philosophical at this point.”
Climate anxiety, also known by eco-anxiety, is characterized as worry and apprehension regarding future generations. The American Psychological Association (APA). defines eco-anxiety as the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concerns for one’s future and that of generations to come.
Chavez-Duckworth doesn’t seem to be the only one concerned about climate and reproductive anxieties. An 2018 survey was conducted by the New York Times found that out of 1,858 Americans between the ages of 20 and 45, a quarter said they had or expected to have less children than they wanted; a third of respondents who wanted more kids listed climate change as a reason they weren’t having them.
Sarah Mayerhofer, Kanbe’s Markets
Kanbe’s Markets is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 with the mission of building an equitable future of food. Through its innovative food delivery system, Kanbe’s Markets delivers and provides fresh food access for over 250,000 Kansas City residents.
“The food that we get in would [otherwise] go to landfills — but we take it, we sort through it; and then we sell what’s best and then everything else finds a home no matter what,” Sarah Mayerhofer said. “So zero food waste at Kanbe’s.”
The largest group of eco-anxious people are those who work in climate-related fields or keep up-to-date with climate news. Sarah Mayerhofer, 26, began graduate school for sustainability leadership. She saw her daily occurrences differently after she started.
“I just became obsessed with, I would say plastic and just waste in general,” recalled Mayerhofer, sustainability coordinator at the Kansas City nonprofit Kanbe’s Markets. “And then knowing what was going to happen to that waste and how it is going to affect future generations and that was never going to go away.”
Since then, Mayerhofer’s anxiety has shifted to more widespread issues — from the oil industry to billionaires going to space when resources are needed on Earth.
“I feel helpless sometimes,” she admitted. “Six years ago, I felt like, ‘I can do something to impact the world’ — and then you learn more, you read more and you have a better understanding of what’s going on.”
Mayerhofer admitted that even though her climate anxiety is sometimes debilitating, she finds solace in sharing her passions, knowledge and experiences. Social media. She doesn’t want her climate anxiety nor climate change to prevent her from having children.
“From a young age, I always wanted to adopt kids; I always wanted to be a mom, and that only gets stronger the older I get,” Mayerhofer said. “I feel like climate change has already robbed so much from us … I don’t want it to rob my experience of being a parent.”
Check out a related video feature from Flatland’s Catherine Hoffman below, then keep reading this story.
Is it selfish
Britt Wray had her own concerns about having children. It led her — a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University — to write, “Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis,”This article examines a generational perspective on how we can stay sane during climate disruption.
In her work, Wray explores how child-free people have often been stigmatized as “selfish” for deciding to live a life without kids. Amber Abram, 35, procurement manager at Kanbe’s Markets, said she has felt judgment over her and her husband’s decision to not increase the size of their family.
“I am one of the few people that I grew up with who don’t have children,” Abram said. “I think there are a lot of questions around it as far as, ‘What’s wrong with her? Why doesn’t she want kids? She’s not going to get that fulfillment.’ It’s a really personal decision that no one needs to know about, but it is definitely in the back of my mind of ‘What will the world look like for the future generation?’”
The “selfish” label is alternately used to describe people who intentionally reproduce during the climate crisis, Wray writes — acknowledging not only that her own desire to have a child outweighed her fear, but that she wants her child to do more than survive. She wants them to flourish.
“Those are these interesting shifts that are harmful on either side of where that language is being targeted,” Wray said, “but I think understandable in terms of aligning with people’s concerns about children’s wellbeing — especially when the [World Health Organization] Publication of a Report saying … no single country on the planet is doing what must be done to protect children’s well-being at this time.”
Amber Abram, Kanbe’s Markets
Abram, who grew up in Kansas City, said she has seen how extreme weather phenomena have occurred in both the Midwest and the coasts.
“What is [the Earth]What will the world look like in 20 years’ time? We’re already nervous with, ‘What is the summer going to look like? Is it going to be really hot?’” Abram questioned. “Or, ‘Are the hurricanes going to be really bad this year?’ My parents live out in Florida, so I’m constantly worried about hurricane season.”
Again, studies show that Abram’s concerns are widespread. 2020 Study published in “Climatic Change” found that 80 percent of survey respondents were extremely concerned about the impacts of the climate change that kids will experience.
“Lots of people want families, and I think that’s great,” she noted. “… [My partner and I] have always been on the same page about it … and we feel really comfortable with our decision.”
Intersectional climate justice
While the climate crisis is a danger for all, it is not the only existential threat facing many of those impacted. In Wray’s research on reproductive anxiety, it revealed an inequity of justice — not solely climate justice, but racial, economic and generational justice, she explained.
“Communities that have been marginalized have long known how unsafe and difficult the world can be. Yet, there’s resilience all around us from marginalized communities. [Their] kids are also an emblem of continuance and saying, ‘The future has us in it too,’ despite oppressive forces that might be raining down on them.”
— Britt Wray is the author of “Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis”
For many reasons (colonization and slavary, genocide), minorities have been living under the tyranny of existential threat. She stated that procreation is a way to resist these pressures in the past.
“Communities that have been marginalized have long known how unsafe and difficult the world can be,” Wray said. “Yet, there’s resilience all around us from marginalized communities. [Their] kids are also an emblem of continuance and saying, ‘The future has us in it too,’ despite oppressive forces that might be raining down on them.”
In “Generation Dread,” Wray references Waubgeshig Rice, an Anishinaabe author from Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. Despite the Anishinaabe people’s utmost respect for the natural environment, Rice shared that he has not heard of anyone from his nation choosing to not have children as a way to deal with climate change.
When Chavez-Duckworth studied indigenous linguistics, she felt moved by the ecological stewardship embedded in it, she recalled — noting that she now aims to live her life with the intention and values that she’s adopted from those cultures.
“Going back to indigenous wisdom, are we acting with intention?” Chavez-Duckworth proposed. “If I were to have a child, I’m going to base it off the principles [healing, humility and harmony], and make sure that I can give them the best life that is also embedded in those principles.”
Angelica Chavez-Duckworth LivZero
In Mayerhofer’s graduate studies, it became clear to her that the physical earth will always endure, even if some of the species — including humans — succumb to destructive forces.
“We won’t always prevail. We’re destroying our own home, and it’s going to come to the point where we can’t live in these conditions,” Mayerhofer said. “To me, that’s why climate change is so sad. Because we’re doing it to ourselves.”
Hear these climate advocates for yourself through Nomin Ujiyediin’s audio story for KCUR 89.3 below, then keep reading.
Raising a new generation of activists
But concern for the environment doesn’t solely breed despair, Wray said.
A study has been done two main arguments for having children amid the climate crisis: the idea that having children will make parents more aggressively pro-environmental and that people can raise their children to be eco-warriors — activists, voters and professionals who will contribute to a decarbonized society, she explained, noting that this is a hopeful approach but also puts great pressure on children to fulfill an expectation.
Wray and her partner eventually decided to bring a baby into the world, she stated.
“Now my kid is a reminder of all the joy and the beauty in the world and all the things worth fighting for and saving,” Wray shared. “… [The idea that a child is] a real, physical stake in the ground that centers you and refocuses you and commits you to this work is very true for me.”
Many of the participants in the study were uninformed and chose to be child-free. Others were not willing to sacrifice their safety to pursue activism (as the risk of being arrested at a demonstration makes parenting impossible).
A young couple from University of Missouri Kansas City hopes to help mitigate climate change while also demonstrating a passion for environmental stewardship in the future.
Armando Alvarez and Justine Dale Gelbolinga
Armando Alvarez (22), member of the Heartland Conservation Alliance, and Justine Dale gelbolinga (20, intern supervisor at The North Kansas City YMCAFor leadership advice The DeBruce Foundation, envision their future with a big family — despite their climate anxiety.
“We’re very goal-oriented, and one of them is that we have to have some kind of career where we can make a difference in the world,” Alvarez said, noting that they want to teach their children with the same mentality. “For more, it’s the environmental career where I can do remediation or restoration of any natural places. … We feel like it’s almost a necessity to have kids and raise them in a good, positive way so that they can make the world a better place.”
“I think what makes me optimistic is that humans have always found a way, and with advancing technology, who knows what could happen in the next 50 or 100 years?”
— Armando Alvarez
“For us and our kids — Future children, I should tell them — one of the biggest goals for us [is] to give them that freedom of choosing what they want their life to be, but guiding them up until their adulthood,” Dale Gelbolinga added.
They shared their concerns about the future world with each other. A 2021 study of 10,000 people between the ages of 16 and 25 in 10 countries — including the U.S. — found that more than half of respondents felt that climate change threatened their families’ security. Alvarez, Dale Gelbolinga and others remain optimistic that sustainable progress is possible.
“The fact that we have each other definitely makes us optimistic,” Alvarez said, smiling. “For our kids, I think what makes me optimistic is that humans have always found a way, and with advancing technology, who knows what could happen in the next 50 or 100 years?”
“I also think a really big thing is the push for youth empowerment and youth leadership,” Dale Gelbolinga said. “You now have these kids who are more aware of what exactly is going on — or maybe not as aware, but who are more willing to learn.”
The couple is optimistic about the future by believing in their future children, and putting in the work.
“There is a possibility that we can do something,” Dale Gelbonina said. “If it’s not a grand thing, we can at least do something, which is better than nothing.”
Thanks to the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation which works with communities in education, entrepreneurship, and to create unusual solutions and empower people for their futures.
Visit this site for more information www.kauffman.orgConnect to www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
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