On Thin Ice

When a 39-year-old scientist released a study about how having children impacts climate change, she found herself under the microscope, with everyone asking: So, are you having kids?

- Kristina Johnson

Kimberly Nicholas grew up in Northern California in the 1990s, listening to Rush Limbaugh kvetch about tax breaks and flag burnings on her mom’s car radio. Since then, she has left her parents’ politics far behind, becoming a climate scientist and decamping to Sweden, where she’s an associate professor at Lund University. But it still felt surreal, last July, when she got a message from a friend informing her that the conservative talk-show host had been railing on-air—about Nicholas herself.

“This woman is probably engaged to some Pajama Boy that might have not won the audition for one of Obama’s TV ads on sustainability,” Limbaugh said into his mic. “She’s trying to decide whether to have children because of climate change!… Why even get married? What’s her name here? Kimberly. Kimberly, why get married? What is the point if you’re not gonna have kids?”