Climate change is a pressing issue that affects all aspects of life, including the decision to have children. Jade Sasser, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has been studying reproductive choices in the context of climate change for over 25 years. Her latest book, “Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question,” explores this topic in depth.
Sasser’s research focuses on how climate anxiety influences reproductive decisions. She found that women of color were the most likely to have fewer children than they desired due to climate change concerns. This finding underscores the prevalence of climate anxiety among communities of color, a demographic often overlooked in climate change discussions.
Sasser’s work also highlights the racial dimensions of eco-anxiety and reproductive decisions. Her previous book, “Infertile Ground,” examined how population growth in the Global South has been misguidedly framed as a crisis, a perspective rooted in racial stereotypes about sexuality and promiscuity.
In her new book, Sasser explores reproductive choices in the Global North. She asks whether it is morally, ethically, or practically sound to bring children into a world that is getting hotter by the day. She also examines how factors such as climate anxiety, race, and socio-economic status shape who decides to have kids and who doesn’t.
Sasser emphasizes that her work is not predictive but rather an exploration of current trends. She believes we are at the beginning of witnessing what could be a significant trend in reproductive decisions influenced by climate anxiety.
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