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Eco-anxiety. Climate guilt. Pre-traumatic stress disorder. Solastalgia. The study of environmental emotions and related mental health impacts is a rapidly growing field, but most researchers overlook a closely related concern: reproductive anxiety. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question is the first comprehensive study of how environmental emotions influence whether, when, and why people today decide to become parents—or not.
Jade S. Sasser argues that we can and should continue to create the families we desire, but that doing so equitably will require deep commitments to social, reproductive, and climate justice. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question presents original research, drawing from in-depth interviews and national survey results that analyze the role of race in environmental emotions and the reproductive plans young people are making as a result. Sasser concludes that climate emotions and climate justice are inseparable, and that culturally appropriate mental and emotional health services are a necessary component to ensure climate justice for vulnerable communities.
"Sasser conducted dozens of interviews and 'was struck by how common climate anxiety is among Gen Zers and how that translates into these anxieties about whether to have kids,' she says. . . . The book places communities of color at the center of the discussion. 'This is an intersectional issue,' Sasser says. 'Climate change hits communities of color differently. Heat events have an impact on pregnancy and birth outcomes, which have long-lasting effects on a child’s growth and development. The people who are hit hardest are pregnant Black women, and the mental and emotional impacts are really hard on communities of color, too.'”
"Examines the relationship between reproduction, gender, and power, and map[s] how social and environmental injustice affects people’s bodies, in ways that are already remaking the very notion of reproductive choice. In paying attention to these often overlooked experiences, [Sasser] illuminate[s] collective modes of surviving—and of parenting—in the face of environmental and other existential threats."
"A valuable book, based on her national survey of whether climate anxiety is affecting people’s decisions about procreating. [Sasser] aims to help those struggling with the question and encourage research on it in marginalized communities, especially among Black people such as herself."
"Highlights the need for greater representation in the fight for climate justice."
"Consider this book an 'existential tool kit' that combines insights from psychology, sociology, mindfulness and years of deep listening with the climate generation."
“Jade Sasser examines the ways in which young people, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, are navigating the moral considerations of having children in a world confronted with serious environmental issues.”
Preface
Introduction: No Future for Us
1. Childfree Nation
2. Can We Still Have Babies?
3. The Kids Are Not Alright
4. The Kid Question Is Unjust
5. The Personal Is Political
6. Reproductive Resistance in Public
Conclusion: No Climate Justice without Climate Emotions
Glossary
Notes
Index