JULIA FRISBIE

'Before  I carried my one beautiful child within me, roared him out into the  world, and was undone by his constant need, the future beyond my  lifetime seemed abstract. Now it’s as real to me as my own tired feet.

Sometimes  I want another baby, and then feel guilty for the want. I always  imagined having two children. But that was before my pacific northwest  homeland was breaking heat records and catching fire every summer. I  burn with desire and with fear.

Those  primarily responsible for the climate catastrophe are not mothers and  babies, but corporate executives and politicians who’ve bought into the  capitalist fallacy of infinite growth on a finite planet. Most are men.  Even if they’re fathers or grandfathers, the physical caretaking of our  shared future-- nursing, diapering, teaching language, watering the  garden, saving seeds-- probably isn’t a big part of their daily routine.  It’s time to put decisions that could safeguard our common future into  the hands of the caretakers, for whom the future is terrifyingly  concrete.'