A group of UK women worried about “ecological Armageddon” are urging others to sign up to a pact pledging not to have children.
Founder of BirthStrike, Blythe Pepino, said she was moved to create the now-60-member-strong community after reading publications from the United Nations’ (UN) climate change body left her feeling like the world had “no future”.
“I do have a partner and would like to have children with him. We’re really in love, and it feels like the right thing to do,” the 33-year-old disclosed.
“But last year I read the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] and realised how wrong it would be to bring a child into a world on the brink of catastrophe. Now we are looking for [others] who feel the same way to join us.”
“It’s a very hard emotional message to decide not to have kids but I hope it might break through the fear and diffidence that surrounds this subject… we are talking about a major destructive event,” concluded Pepino, a singer who has previously spoken extensively to press outlets on her ‘polyamorous’ lifestyle and relationships.
The launch of BirthStrike in Britain came only days after U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez touched on similar topics during a question-and-answer session broadcast from her Instagram account, in which she defended her much-criticised ‘Green New Deal’.
“It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult, and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?” the Democrat representative wondered aloud.
Bristol-based eco-activist Alice Brown, who was one of the first to sign up to BirthStrike, joined Pepino on the UK media circuit this week to talk about their concerns for the future and urge other British women to think twice before bringing children into the world.
Brown, who recently told her father that she would not consider having children until carbon emissions were vastly reduced, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show that her concern over the climate meant “each day for me is a struggle”.
“I’m so depressed, and that has led to a fear that I’ve never felt before,” the 25-year-old confessed, explaining: “Since my parents had me, we’ve destroyed 60 per cent of life on this planet.
“There could be 10 percent of nature left when my child is growing up. That is incredibly dangerous. We’re already at the tipping point and I can’t see a safe world for children.”
During an appearance on ITV’s This Morning on Thursday, Pepino highlighted IPCC warnings of “disastrous global temperature rises… unless humanity cuts its greenhouse gas emissions” as central to her decision to choose ‘the planet over pregnancy’.
But the London-based, anti-patriarchy musician, who reportedly now campaigns full time, is also an advocate of open borders, having erected shelters for illegal immigrants in Calais and ‘worked closely’ with the UK NGO Help Refugees.
After performing the music in 2016’s John Lewis Christmas advert with her band, Vaults, Pepino expressed support for a campaign seeking the shutdown of migration-critical media, in an announcement that all proceeds from the single would be donated to Help Refugees.
Essentially seeking to dismantle UK border controls, with demands including a massive loosening of restrictions on the number and types of family members migrants are allowed to import, the aims of Help Refugees would appear to be completely at odds with BirthStrike.
Exposing the contradiction in the Birthstrike founder’s positions, the policies NGO Help Refugees advocates would vastly increase global CO2 output through transferring populations from unindustrialised, low-polluting parts of the world to rich nations where residents have a far higher carbon footprint.
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