As we zoom toward 7 billion, population growth is looking ever more hairy and daunting. The big-picture solution is empowering women everywhere and making sure they have the tools, knowledge, and support to control the size of their families, but thatâs not something an average person can tackle on a lunch break. Of course you can (and you should) badger your congresspeople to fund family planning, both abroad and at home, and donate to nonprofits that work on these issues.
But what can we do ourselves, in our own lives and communities? Here are a few ideas. Add your own below in comments.
1. Push to improve sex ed in your local schools. The teen birthrate in the U.S., even though itâs fallen recently, is still far higher than in other developed countries, and thatâs one reason the U.S. has a higher overall fertility rate than most wealthy nations. Schools need to be straight with kids about sex and contraception (unlike the coach in Mean Girls, who threatens: âDonât have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! ⊠OK, now everybody take some rubbers.â).
2. Let the teenagers in your life know they can talk to you about sex. Whether youâre a parent, stepparent, aunt, uncle, friend, or neighbor, make it known that youâll answer questions frankly and even help teens get birth control (and not just so they can make condom water bombs).
3. Support abortion rights and family-planning programs, and vote for candidates who do the same. Yep, I said the A word. Deal with it.
4. If you are a parent, donât pressure others to have kids. And hardest of all â gulp â donât push your own kids to give you grandkids. (Reverse psychology might work better than nagging anyway.)
5. If you know you want to become a parent, consider having just two kids, or one. Only kids get a bad rep, but the evidence points to onlies being no weirder or worse off than children from larger families, and by many measures better off. You could also consider having kids a little later in life (larger gaps between generations mean slower population growth), or adopting or becoming a foster parent. Whatever your inclinations, just donât pull a Duggar.
6. If youâre undecided about whether to have a kid, give it some serious thought. Hound parents for their unvarnished opinions on the pluses and minuses. Hang out with kids and see whether you canât get enough or canât wait to get away. Maybe you could become a highly involved godparent or co-parent to othersâ kids â much of the fun, fewer of the diapers.
7. If you think parenting isnât your thing, you could declare yourself a GINK (green inclinations, no kids). It might seem like a lonely choice, but more and more people are going childfree; nearly one in five women end up not having kids, according to the latest stats. And if you know parenting isnât your thing (or just have a mischievous sense of humor), join the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
8. Talk about all of this out in the open â while being respectful of everyone elseâs choices, natch. And get on board with the Global Population Speak Out in February.
