Want to Combat Climate Change? Advo

You've most likely heard about climate change and the problems it will cause for the globe. You will also have heard about the possible solutions to climate change which include things like solar cells, wind turbines, electric cars and so on. However, you are highly unlikely to have heard how sexual freedom and gender equality could be a solution to climate change.

When people especially women have sexual freedom, they are thus able to make their own decisions about whether they want to get married, when they want to get married, whether they want kids and how many kids they want. People who are more sexually free tend to make decisions which are in harmony with the planet. Now achieving sexual freedom and gender equality for its own sake is a good cause. However, what if I told you there was an added bonus. Not sold? I can understand. However, I hope to persuade you.

Before I try to persuade you about the need for sexual freedom and gender equality I will go into the issue of population directly. As the human population grows beyond 7.3 billion people, the challenges to meet the needs for a rising population becomes ever more difficult especially since we are already witnessing ecological problems such as climate change, deforestation, mass species extinction, topsoil erosion, resource depletion and ocean acidification.

Some environmentalists have criticized discussions relating to population by arguing that excessive consumption is the problem. They state that a minority of the global population is consuming the most resources. This is true. The richest 20% of the global population consume 80% of the world's resources.

However, there are flaws with this analysis.

One of the flaws with this analysis is that it forgets to factor in life expectancy. Ever since the industrial revolution, life expectancy overall has increased throughout the world. This means that individuals consume over a longer period of time. Also bear in mind that overall life expectancy is expected to keep increasing.

Another flaw with this line of reasoning is that just because developing countries are consuming little today does not necessarily mean that this will be the case within a generation. Throughout the developing world leaders are promising their citizens a better standard of living. For decades the inhabitants of developing countries have been looking at the middle class American lifestyle with envy. Two such countries are India and China. China has already attracted international attention for its unprecedented economic growth, which has also brought unprecedented consumption.

Automobile ownership in China has skyrocketed. Urban areas which were full of cyclists, are today filled with motorists. Consumption of many other products is also increasing. If the people of India and China wish to have cars, washing machines, televisions, computers, dishwashers and so on, do we have any legal or moral authority to stop them? The answer is clearly no.

So what is the solution to this conundrum. I can tell you first hand what is not the solution, using force and coercion. Not only is it unethical and counterproductive, it is also unnecessary. A far better solution would be to push for sexual freedom globally.

On the surface of it advocating for sexual freedom as an environmental solution may sound counterintuitive. After all procreation is viewed as the primary effect of having sex. Thus the more sex people have the higher the population of the planet. A higher population thus leads to resources being consumed at a faster rate. This assumption only holds true if we forget the fact that people have sex merely for pleasure. It also ignores people in lesbian and gay relationships who cannot conceive through sex.

Thus, parts of the world such as southern Asia (India, Pakistan etc) and the Middle East tend to have higher rate of population growth than do countries in Western Europe and North America despite the fact that south Asia and the Middle East are less free sexually.

This is due to patriarchal norms which have been there for millennia and have permeated the legal system, culture and religion. In these nations, sex is primarily seen as a way to have children, sex as pleasure comes secondary. This is evident due to the heavy regulations both legal and societal on sexual activity especially for women.

Placing huge restrictions on women has led to sexual violence, honour violence, child marriage, domestic violence and purity culture. This in turn means that women have little to no say over their own bodies which thus leads to many women having more children than they actually desire. Contraception and family planning on their own will not be enough to expand sexual freedom. There needs to be whole scale changes in the law as well as how society views sexuality.

So what are the solutions to these problems? Changing the legal structure would be a start. These changes would include making child marriages illegal, making sure that women have control over their own bodies, tackling purity culture, stopping honour violence, ending slut shaming, expanding LGBT rights and so on.

However, it must be noted that the Middle East and southern Asia are not the only places where there are restrictions on sexual activity. Even in the more liberal spaces of north America and parts of Europe also have plenty of sexual hangups. In the United States comprehensive sex education and reproductive rights are under constant attack by conservatives.

One of the consequences of the gutting of sex educations programs and reproductive services has been high rates of teen pregnancies in comparison to other western European nations such as the Netherlands. In the United States sex education programs vary in quality from state to state. In southern states such as Texas and Mississippi teen pregnancies are significantly higher due in part to comprehensive sex education programs being limited to non existent. The solution to this problem is to pass a federal law mandating that young people are taught sex education in schools. This would help decrease the number of teen pregnancies and also lead to teens having better sexual relationships.

By lowering teenage pregnancies taxpayer's money would be saved plus it would also mean that emissions overall will be lowered. As people in the United States consume 20% of the world's energy whilst constituting only 5% of the global population, reducing teenage pregnancies would have a greater impact in mitigating climate change due to the high consumption levels of the United States.

As well as lowering teenage pregnancies, it would also be important to tackle the obsession society has with having children in general. There is no law in the western world (at least to my knowledge) that says that everyone is required to become a parent, however, culturally and societally people are expected to become parents. Deciding that you do not wish to have kids can lead to criticism from peers who would accuse you of being 'selfish.'

This belief that people who decide not to have kids are uncaring is simply absurd.

Might the opposite be true? After all bringing a kid into the world could itself be seen as selfish. Some people wish to have kids to carry on the family line, some people want kids so that they can live their lives through them. Then there are people who do have kids and then end up being neglectful or abusive. On the other hand deciding not to have a child is a great way to reduce your environmental impact. According to a 2009 study by Oregon State University by not having an extra child is 20 times better for environment than driving a fuel efficient car, recycling, using energy efficient appliances and lightbulbs combined.

Then there are all the other benefits of deciding that you will not have children as you do not wish to. These include not having to be woken in the middle of the night by a screaming baby, having more time to yourself, better finances and preventing an unwanted child from being born. Embracing childlessness as a legitimate social and cultural choice can also make it easier to reach the goal of every child being a wanted child.

All in all promoting sexual freedom by this I mean giving people especially women the choice of who they have sex with, if they would like to marry and whether or not they want to have kids would help stabilise global population, thus making it easier for societies around the world to live sustainably.