Teens Are Refusing to Have Kids Unless The Government Does Something About Climate Change

Emma Lim, the 18-year-old founder of the #NoFutureNoChildren climate change movement, is taking a stand by refusing to have children of her own in the future unless the government does something about the growing concern.

“I have always, always wanted to be a mom, for as long as I can remember,” Lim, a biomedical science student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada told Insider. “But I will not bring a child into a world where they will not be safe. I would like to see the government develop a comprehensive plan to stay below 1.5 degrees [Celsius] of warming.”

The movement, which has a caption of “I PLEDGE NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN UNTIL I AM SURE MY GOVERNMENT WILL ENSURE A SAFE FUTURE FOR THEM,” has already received more than 1,000 pledges as of this writing.

A 2018 United Nations report stated that the earth has warmed 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 19th Century.

Lim expressed how she wants to see a plan that will help people affected by climate change, including those who work in industries like agriculture, fishing, oil, and gas and displaced people.

“When you’re young you believe that your government will fix things, and so I joined the green team and we worked on recycling and I figured that everything would be okay,” she said. “But that trust in your leaders erodes over time.”

Lim isn’t the only one from her generation who is terrified of what the future may hold. Her friends reportedly feel scared, too.

“I launched the pledge because I wanted other people to understand how the fear of climate is so unquestioned in my generation. It’s something everybody feels,” she said.

“Where in my parent’s or grandparent’s generation, believing in climate change is often a matter of opinion and not survival,” Lim continued.

Lim’s parents, who joined her when she launched her pledge on Monday at the Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada were the first people to ever be touched by her #NoFutureNoChildren movement.

“For the first time, the impact of climate change became real to them,” Lim told Vice Canada. “You read about hurricane stories and heat waves, but the massive, most catastrophic events haven’t touched us yet in Canada. There’s flooding but it hasn’t really affected my immediate family. But this hurts; this is something tangible.”

Lim expressed how she is unimpressed by what the government has been doing to tackle the climate change problem.

“I think they’re being cowards,” she said, adding, “In Canada, we know that climate action is needed, but the people who are supposed to be our leaders and have our best interests at heart are taking the easy way out.”

Images via Nofuturepledge