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Why Your Fairtrade Organic Latte Isn’t Going To Save the Planet
A few nights ago my wife and I settled down to watch First Reformed with Ethan Hawke. I like Ethan Hawke — he seems honest and humble and his characters are (mostly) believable.
But this is not a film review. It’s a short article written in my head during the part in the movie where the environmental campaigner explains to the priest (Hawke) that he wants his girlfriend to have an abortion to avoid bringing another child into this world.
It’s a well-done scene and reminded me of a discussion I had with a close friend a few years ago. He asked me one night why I had never had children — he had three. I argued various points about it never being the right time, financial worries, my rather unstable life, difficulty in taking responsibility, blah blah. Until I finally admitted that my main reason was the environmental impact of having children.
My friend looked at me rather blankly. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
I wasn’t sure how to put it any clearer, so I said it again: ‘I don’t have kids because every child is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Get this: I recently read that one extra child produces 60 tonnes of carbon per year. If you go carless for a year, you save two. I mean the figures are astonishing! People go on about going green and…
