Trading hope for reality helps me parent through the climate crisis

When I gave birth to my first child, in 2019, it seemed like everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. He came out white and limp, his head dangling off to the side. People swarmed into the hospital room, trying to suction his lungs so he could breathe.

- Emma Pattee

PORTLAND, Oregon – When I gave birth to my first child, in 2019, it seemed like everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. He came out white and limp, his head dangling off to the side. People swarmed into the hospital room, trying to suction his lungs so he could breathe.

Hours later, my husband and I stood in the neonatal intensive care unit, looking down at this newborn baby, hooked up to wires and tubes.

We had spent months talking about how to protect him from various harmful influences, and here we were, an hour out of the gate, dealing with a situation we had not even considered. Had his brain been deprived of oxygen for too long? Would there be lifelong damage?

That night in the hospital, I learned the first lesson of parenting: You are not in control of what is going to happen, nor can you predict it. This applies to your child’s personality, many of his choices and, to some extent, his health. It also applies to the growing threat of climate change.

The climate crisis is bad and getting worse.

Here in Oregon, we have endured several severe heat waves and wildfires in recent years. As the impacts compound, it is clear that a lot of people around the world – many of them children – are going to suffer and die.