Can you have kids and still be a good person?

[Valin]

Grist:

Eve Andrews

16 Jul 2015

 

The latest episode of “The Adaptors” podcast looks into a question that most people think about but few (well, we’re among the few) like to talk about: How, in a world where we are increasingly aware of how our carbon footprint is dooming the planet to uninhabitability, do we make the decision to have a child? Or two children? Or three?

 

Producers Flora Lichtman and Katherine Wells interview Johns Hopkins bioethicist (and father) Travis Rieder about how fraught — or simple — that decision can be. We learn that having a child increases your carbon footprint by a factor of about 5.7, and that not having a child saves about 9,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. For the p/maternally inclined, is there any good news?

 

The conversation is fascinating, and well worth listening to all 22 minutes. Don’t lie — you’ve definitely spent more time Googling “period 4 hours late am i pregnant.” Listen below:

 

(Snip)

 

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H/T Twichy