JULIA FRISBIE
UNITED STATES
'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.'