Don’t stop having children because of ‘climate change’ | Opinion

More and more voices are being raised to argue that the declining birth rate in the United States is actually a good thing, because the fewer people we have, the better we can fight climate change. But this argument is just another attempt to attack the roots of American greatness by attacking the American family – and that has been the strategy of the left for decades.

These are the same people who are trying to force us to give up meat and eat insects and lab-grown alternatives; give up property and live in a pod; abandon gas stoves; and move to fully electric vehicles. Every thing they offer is a promise to make our lives worse.

Of course, they never mention that only about 15% of carbon emissions come from the United States (with China being the main polluter) and that about 81% of ocean plastic waste comes from East Asia. Instead, they call for policies that would cripple our industry, jeopardize our future public programs, and restrict the education of our families in a way that would barely reduce the total pollution occurring on the world stage.

When people ask who will fund our government operations in the future, the answer is often immigrants—despite the fact that immigrants generally strain our welfare system and that immigration to the United States significantly increases carbon emissions, up to four times per immigrant.

Their movement is anti-human, anti-family, and anti-life – and Americans should wholeheartedly reject this ideological denigration of the nuclear family and instead cherish the beauties of family life.

In my opinion, strong families are the building blocks of strong communities, and strong communities lay the foundation for a strong nation. As the family goes, so goes the country. This is the major theme of my recent book, The perilous fightin which I discuss the central role the family plays in a country and the dangers our society faces when the family declines.

In my book, I point out that our country has recorded its lowest birth rate in a century and that our fertility rate has fallen to 1.6 births per woman, which is well below the 2.1 births of which one nation needs to sustain itself in the future. I discuss the shift in our culture’s attitude from valuing family to valuing a luxurious and indulgent lifestyle without children, and the tragic fact that 43% of first marriages end in marriage. divorce – for the fewer and fewer couples who take the trouble to get married. Of those who decide to have children, around one in four are raised in single-parent families, the highest rate of any country in the world.

We don’t have to look very hard to see what happens when families break down. For example, children in single-parent homes are more likely to develop behavioral problems and depression, attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, drop out of high school, and engage in criminal activity than their counterparts in two-parent homes. Another study even shows that fatherless children are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than children from intact homes.

These dire consequences are all symptoms of a deeper societal decline, and all stem from cultural attacks on the family as an institution.

The voices being raised today calling on Americans to reject the nuclear family and give up having children in order to combat climate change are eerily reminiscent of the ancient practice of child sacrifice to please the weather gods and ensure a bountiful harvest. This isn’t science, it’s superstition – and anyone who asks you to give up your most sacred calling, that of a parent, is trying to lead you astray.

As Americans, it is our duty to support families, build communities, and prepare our nation for the future by cultivating civic values ​​in the next generation. If we are to compete on the world stage with countries like China and India, both of which have populations of more than a billion, we must encourage family formation, strengthen communities, and expand our education systems for our own children here at home.

Our cultural crisis will only continue if we do not tackle these attacks on the family head-on. Our country has long relied on the family unit to strengthen the community bonds that have guided us through some of our greatest challenges. Today, we must all do our part to restore these vibrant community bonds, and it all starts by returning the family to its rightful place as the cornerstone of American society.

Dr. Ben Carson is founder and president of the American Cornerstone Institute.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.