Choosing to be child-free for the sake of the planet

At the start of the shocking year that is 2020, I shared my thoughts on not having children with a journalist. I told her I believe there are too many people on the planet, stripping the world of its resources and horribly damaging wildlife. I said I definitely wouldn’t be adding to the problem by further increasing the population.

Over a series of email exchanges, a piece was crafted to share my views with the world. At times it was difficult to do. I had to revisit sensitive times in my past, to recapture feelings that were very painful. The editing process is long and I had to repeatedly delve into deep loss - of both my mother and a former partner.

Back in early 2020, the piece was scheduled to be published in April, but we all know what happened to scheduled life from March onwards…

And so, my thoughts and feelings along with a host of other plans were put on ice, until Sunday.

On Sunday, August 23, my face and feature on choosing not to have children hit the news stands in The Sunday Telegraph’s Stella magazine. You can read the piece HERE.

Since then, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster to say the least.

My heart was racing and my hands were trembling when I picked up the newspaper and saw my words in black and white ‘out there’.

Close friends know my feelings on overpopulation, but many others didn’t know until Sunday. Luckily the reaction from those who know me was overwhelmingly positive, with huge support and encouragement, which I appreciated enormously.

But comments from a public who don’t know anything about me, other than the story I shared, were considerably less favourable, but I’ll tackle my thoughts on that in a separate post.

My viewpoint has certainly split opinion and got people talking. A couple of radio stations have been in touch to talk about my (increasingly) unpopular opinion. I’ll be on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, chatting to Anna King tomorrow lunchtime.

I’m also speaking to Newstalk Radio in Ireland tomorrow on its drivetime show, The Hard Shoulder, which should be interesting and I hope they will be kind!

A Swedish ‘childfreeness’ podcasting duo dropped me a line to let me know they’ll be discussing my feature in their upcoming podcast. It seems it’s most definitely a talking point!

Sadly the Daily Mail sensationalised the feature, cherry-picking dramatic quotes, totally reinventing the direction of the more balanced piece in The Sunday Telegraph. You can read the Daily Mail’s version HERE.

That Daily Mail article is when vitriol from some reader comments started flying and I wondered whether it had been wise to do the piece in the first place.

But ultimately, I did it because it’s something I feel passionate about and I believe it’s a vital issue that should be talked about more widely.

Each human being in the UK adds roughly 10 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which doesn’t sound like a lot but it certainly adds up. And the over intensification of farming for the food we all need to eat is alarming. We’re only just waking up to how pesticides have killed bees and ruined biodiversity, not to mention polluting rivers and agricultural run-off killing fish.

The world's population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion in 2050 and I could never add to that terrifying figure. I hope that by talking about the issue more people will reflect on how their life choices are affecting the planet and perhaps, like me, choose a different path.