Rethinking Lifestyle

I learned a new acronym this week – GINK. What’s GINK I hear you ask? It stands for Green Intentions No Kids, and refers to couples who have made the decision for the sake of the planet not to have kids.

Why would they do that? Aren’t we here to procreate and produce future citizens?

As I consider my friends and family, there are those amongst us with children, some with four or five children, and those amongst us with none. Of course the reasons for having children or not is entirely personal for each couple whether intentional or not. I wouldn’t want to ask those without children if they are GINKs for fear of offending, but reading about GINKs made me think…

Here in North America and Canada our energy and resource consumption per individual is the highest in the world. So it follows that as far as the planet is concerned bringing children into the world here has a far greater impact on the world than if the child is born into a poor community in Africa or Bangladesh or elsewhere in the developing world. We live in a consumer society using natural resources as fast as we can, generating waste and gas emissions that far exceed anywhere else in the world. Every child our society produces contributes to that, and as our population continues to grow, that situation gets worse.

To throw some metrics into the debate, the World Bank publishes CO2 emissions in tonnes per capita regularly, which gives some measure of our impact. The data for 2010 show the contrast between the developing world and North America clearly. The CO2 emissions per head in metric tonnes – Bangladesh 0.3, Ethiopia 0.2, Ghana 0.4, Nigeria 0.5, Columbia 1.6, Germany 9.1, China 6.2, Mexico 3.8, Philippines 0.9, United Kingdom 7.9, Canada 14.7, United States 17.6.

Shocking isn’t it, to consider how much CO2 we are generating through our lifestyles… and that our children are making the situation worse.

Now I’m not suggesting that couples should not have children – as I said earlier, that is an entirely personal decision and not necessarily within a couple’s control. However, we are responsible for those children and how they live their lives; the resources they use and the waste they produce. And clearly, here in North America and Canada, according to the World Bank report we ‘could do better’.

I don’t see many classes on bringing up low-impact children, and I think we have a long way to go. If you have any ideas or positive practices you have tried, please do write in.

In the meantime, be thankful for all the single people and childless couples out there, who whether they are GINKs or not, are helping our society to reduce its impact on the planet!