[Music]
I’m often asked how can I make a
difference I’m just one person as a
sustainability coordinator I can come up
with all sorts of reasons for you to
make a difference like riding your bike
to work buying in bulk at the grocery
store and not releasing your exotic pet
Burmese python into the wild when it
gets too big there are all sorts of
things that we can do and just imagine
that you are one of a hundred a thousand
or a million people doing the same
action small actions do matter but there
are things that have a greater impact on
the planet I got to thinking about this
when I was early in my youth and I saw
pictures of kids that didn’t have a
family or a house or even a place to
live and then as a college student when
I was studying environmental education
in the 80s I learned that the earth has
a limited carrying capacity before the
intricate balance begins to Teeter so
what’s up with the Earth’s population
today well a United Nations Department
of Economic and Social Affairs report
recently released has our population at
7.3 billion it’s predicted to increase
to eight point five billion by 2030 nine
point seven billion by 2050 and over
eleven billion by the middle of the
centre by the 22nd century with this
number of people how will this impact
our planet well the International Center
for Strategic Studies wanted to consider
how planet with nine billion people by
the middle of the century would would
affect and you know we’re gonna need
more of lots of things like fresh water
more fresh food housing and let’s be
real enough Legos for all those kids to
play with and slippers for the parents
that step on them in the middle of the
night to just try and imagine the
increased demand on all the resources
you know as Americans we love to buy
stuff
and we love to throw away stuff and
before you know it our kids will be
snowboarding down a mountain of garbage
and the snow could be made of plastic
pellets instead of the real powder that
we get up on Mount Hood well that’s a
global snapshot for you but what are we
seeing closer to home according to the
2016 US census we’ve got a population of
over 323 million in the States it’s
estimated that a child is born every
eight seconds and here in the Portland
metro region our comprehensive plan
update recently adopted by our City
Council estimates that over 260 thousand
more people will arrive here 2035
that’ll bring our population up to about
eight hundred and eighty thousand in the
city wow you know we’re already seeing
the growing pains of increased
population here can’t you feel it more
cars on the road right rising rental
prices increase water demands but you
know what thankfully in Portland
there’ll be enough microbreweries for
everybody don’t have to worry so what
does this mean for us we can talk about
sustainability from the perspective of
how far food travels or what our
products are made of or maybe what kind
of toxins are found in our home but we
rarely talk about it from a cultural or
family perspective so what might this
mean for living a sustainable lifestyle
one of the things that makes humans
unique is language and culture but I
think one of the roadblocks that we have
when we’re talking about overpopulation
is culture we think it might cause too
much tension to talk about the personal
aspects that our choices create we feel
it might cause us to be uncomfortable
for us to want to wade into the unspoken
expectation that you will reproduce if
we were to think the old advice think
globally while acting locally how much
more local can we get than talking about
eggs and sperm
how does this population growth affect
our sense of self and culture around us
you know even for me coming from a
blue-collar family I felt as if as if I
could achieve the American Dream by one
day getting a decent job maybe buying a
home and reproducing those 2.5 children
and being a 21st century career focused
Portland mom I thought I’d just split
that 0.5 kid with another free range
supporting neighborhood neighbor they
wanted to it’s not just the statistics
that need to be revised as we grow but
the way we think about the impact of our
behaviors and the way we live our values
I think this is a perfect time for us to
start to reconsider our our previous
paradigms but how this great opportunity
for us to rethink our vision of
community as humans we do well in
community I mean we like to do sports
together we have hobbies a lot of us
practice our faith with friends family
and our social groups but visualize a
world in which we were to reconsider and
rethink family and culture and how this
might affect the livability of our
planet we can go to world watch
Institute’s website to study the nine
population strategies to stop short of
nine billion by the middle of century
some of those include providing
universal safe and effective
contraceptive options for all
guaranteeing education through secondary
school for both sexes especially girls
and eradicating gender bias from law
economic opportunity and education well
that’s kind of heady stuff of NGOs and
international aid workers again I’m
somebody asked me Elaine what can I do
today well there are some things that
you can do today and one of those is the
choices you make in creating a family so
let’s talk about sex
okay now that I’ve got your attention
here are some ways that you can make a
difference one make a plan for yourself
with your partner for your future to
wait or practice a lot before starting a
family right enjoy being single take
that trip on your bucket list do your
dating homework but please use
contraceptives number three do the math
yikes do you know that a married couple
middle-income with two kids is estimated
to spend over two hundred and thirty
three thousand dollars to raise a child
born in 2015 according to a US
Department of Ag report released in
January and that’s just from birth to 17
it doesn’t even include college yeah
number four make a choice to be child
free okay now some of you may recall
this old acronym was around a while ago
Dinks not what you’re thinking
dual income no kids there’s a new one
ginks stands for green inclination no
kids so you know this one’s already
being socially normed so you don’t have
to feel like a weirdo with this with
this choice number five make a choice to
port a child by being a mentor in some
way you could be a auntie and uncle a TR
tio or big brother or big sister this
has a very low commitment right you can
take the kids to movies you can go to
corn mazes in the fall maybe take them
on a college visit and all the while you
get to miss out on the late-night vomit
fest full-on puberty and vetting those
prom dates number six you could create
your chosen family right you know those
people that you want in your life that
don’t all have to be biologically
related it’s okay those people that you
want sitting around the Thanksgiving
table and
front of a large juicy tofurkey seven
consider limiting your child to just one
birth child now if you start waffling on
this one because you think I might have
a tendency to raise a spoiled kid well
find those aunties and uncles plan lots
of playdates and maybe set up in an
expensive rental kit program for your
child-free fans that might work
number eight last one consider adoption
there are many ways that you could adopt
via international adoption domestic
adoption or foster care well I know this
list might seem overwhelming to some of
you but uh you know what I’m living
proof that you can manifest something
off of this list and I want to share
briefly how it showed up in my life when
I was a young adult I’d always kind of
considered I might create my family
through adoption then I met my husband
and you know we took those trips on the
bucket list and we had a lot of fun and
by the time I got serious about a family
as a mature couple in our late 30s my
eggs were getting pretty tired and his
sperm needed life preservers so after my
husband’s common fears about adoption
were demystified we don’t head long into
our journey a brave thoughtful pregnant
birth mother in our area made it an
adoption plan and chose us to parent
even though we had met her and agreed
upon our open adoption plan we were
still floored to get the call a month
later that she had gone into labor and
there we were
a day later with this five-pound little
bundle of joy and I could still recall
crying uncontrollably as we left the
hospital I’m trying to fathom what our
birth mother was going through knowing
that she’d made the best
vision of her life at that time for
herself and her child and that was
really tough well a year later our child
number two pro and con list written out
and fully vetted by my scientist husband
and I we decided we could dedicate our
life to another tile with this
international adoption we were gifted
into our life a foster family a birth
family and a 15 month old toddler to
love amazing way to build a family yeah
exhausting oh yeah
transformative you bet yeah but you know
I wouldn’t trade this in for anything
different and things in life that are
difficult and hard can be further
supported when you’ve got a great
partner and community around you and
something like overpopulation population
growth can be supported in a community
so for a moment please close your eyes
take a breath and consider what you
would like for your future with your
family think about freshwater lakes to
swim in schools that have green spaces
to play soccer in large mature majestic
trees to gaze up at and fresh air to
breathe now open your eyes and look at
somebody to your right make eye contact
with them feel the love because you know
what these people are a part of your
community and together our collective
actions can make a big difference on
this one planet with that we have so
never underestimate the power that your
actions can have one child at a time
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
I’m often asked how can I make a
difference I’m just one person as a
sustainability coordinator I can come up
with all sorts of reasons for you to
make a difference like riding your bike
to work buying in bulk at the grocery
store and not releasing your exotic pet
Burmese python into the wild when it
gets too big there are all sorts of
things that we can do and just imagine
that you are one of a hundred a thousand
or a million people doing the same
action small actions do matter but there
are things that have a greater impact on
the planet I got to thinking about this
when I was early in my youth and I saw
pictures of kids that didn’t have a
family or a house or even a place to
live and then as a college student when
I was studying environmental education
in the 80s I learned that the earth has
a limited carrying capacity before the
intricate balance begins to Teeter so
what’s up with the Earth’s population
today well a United Nations Department
of Economic and Social Affairs report
recently released has our population at
7.3 billion it’s predicted to increase
to eight point five billion by 2030 nine
point seven billion by 2050 and over
eleven billion by the middle of the
centre by the 22nd century with this
number of people how will this impact
our planet well the International Center
for Strategic Studies wanted to consider
how planet with nine billion people by
the middle of the century would would
affect and you know we’re gonna need
more of lots of things like fresh water
more fresh food housing and let’s be
real enough Legos for all those kids to
play with and slippers for the parents
that step on them in the middle of the
night to just try and imagine the
increased demand on all the resources
you know as Americans we love to buy
stuff
and we love to throw away stuff and
before you know it our kids will be
snowboarding down a mountain of garbage
and the snow could be made of plastic
pellets instead of the real powder that
we get up on Mount Hood well that’s a
global snapshot for you but what are we
seeing closer to home according to the
2016 US census we’ve got a population of
over 323 million in the States it’s
estimated that a child is born every
eight seconds and here in the Portland
metro region our comprehensive plan
update recently adopted by our City
Council estimates that over 260 thousand
more people will arrive here 2035
that’ll bring our population up to about
eight hundred and eighty thousand in the
city wow you know we’re already seeing
the growing pains of increased
population here can’t you feel it more
cars on the road right rising rental
prices increase water demands but you
know what thankfully in Portland
there’ll be enough microbreweries for
everybody don’t have to worry so what
does this mean for us we can talk about
sustainability from the perspective of
how far food travels or what our
products are made of or maybe what kind
of toxins are found in our home but we
rarely talk about it from a cultural or
family perspective so what might this
mean for living a sustainable lifestyle
one of the things that makes humans
unique is language and culture but I
think one of the roadblocks that we have
when we’re talking about overpopulation
is culture we think it might cause too
much tension to talk about the personal
aspects that our choices create we feel
it might cause us to be uncomfortable
for us to want to wade into the unspoken
expectation that you will reproduce if
we were to think the old advice think
globally while acting locally how much
more local can we get than talking about
eggs and sperm
how does this population growth affect
our sense of self and culture around us
you know even for me coming from a
blue-collar family I felt as if as if I
could achieve the American Dream by one
day getting a decent job maybe buying a
home and reproducing those 2.5 children
and being a 21st century career focused
Portland mom I thought I’d just split
that 0.5 kid with another free range
supporting neighborhood neighbor they
wanted to it’s not just the statistics
that need to be revised as we grow but
the way we think about the impact of our
behaviors and the way we live our values
I think this is a perfect time for us to
start to reconsider our our previous
paradigms but how this great opportunity
for us to rethink our vision of
community as humans we do well in
community I mean we like to do sports
together we have hobbies a lot of us
practice our faith with friends family
and our social groups but visualize a
world in which we were to reconsider and
rethink family and culture and how this
might affect the livability of our
planet we can go to world watch
Institute’s website to study the nine
population strategies to stop short of
nine billion by the middle of century
some of those include providing
universal safe and effective
contraceptive options for all
guaranteeing education through secondary
school for both sexes especially girls
and eradicating gender bias from law
economic opportunity and education well
that’s kind of heady stuff of NGOs and
international aid workers again I’m
somebody asked me Elaine what can I do
today well there are some things that
you can do today and one of those is the
choices you make in creating a family so
let’s talk about sex
okay now that I’ve got your attention
here are some ways that you can make a
difference one make a plan for yourself
with your partner for your future to
wait or practice a lot before starting a
family right enjoy being single take
that trip on your bucket list do your
dating homework but please use
contraceptives number three do the math
yikes do you know that a married couple
middle-income with two kids is estimated
to spend over two hundred and thirty
three thousand dollars to raise a child
born in 2015 according to a US
Department of Ag report released in
January and that’s just from birth to 17
it doesn’t even include college yeah
number four make a choice to be child
free okay now some of you may recall
this old acronym was around a while ago
Dinks not what you’re thinking
dual income no kids there’s a new one
ginks stands for green inclination no
kids so you know this one’s already
being socially normed so you don’t have
to feel like a weirdo with this with
this choice number five make a choice to
port a child by being a mentor in some
way you could be a auntie and uncle a TR
tio or big brother or big sister this
has a very low commitment right you can
take the kids to movies you can go to
corn mazes in the fall maybe take them
on a college visit and all the while you
get to miss out on the late-night vomit
fest full-on puberty and vetting those
prom dates number six you could create
your chosen family right you know those
people that you want in your life that
don’t all have to be biologically
related it’s okay those people that you
want sitting around the Thanksgiving
table and
front of a large juicy tofurkey seven
consider limiting your child to just one
birth child now if you start waffling on
this one because you think I might have
a tendency to raise a spoiled kid well
find those aunties and uncles plan lots
of playdates and maybe set up in an
expensive rental kit program for your
child-free fans that might work
number eight last one consider adoption
there are many ways that you could adopt
via international adoption domestic
adoption or foster care well I know this
list might seem overwhelming to some of
you but uh you know what I’m living
proof that you can manifest something
off of this list and I want to share
briefly how it showed up in my life when
I was a young adult I’d always kind of
considered I might create my family
through adoption then I met my husband
and you know we took those trips on the
bucket list and we had a lot of fun and
by the time I got serious about a family
as a mature couple in our late 30s my
eggs were getting pretty tired and his
sperm needed life preservers so after my
husband’s common fears about adoption
were demystified we don’t head long into
our journey a brave thoughtful pregnant
birth mother in our area made it an
adoption plan and chose us to parent
even though we had met her and agreed
upon our open adoption plan we were
still floored to get the call a month
later that she had gone into labor and
there we were
a day later with this five-pound little
bundle of joy and I could still recall
crying uncontrollably as we left the
hospital I’m trying to fathom what our
birth mother was going through knowing
that she’d made the best
vision of her life at that time for
herself and her child and that was
really tough well a year later our child
number two pro and con list written out
and fully vetted by my scientist husband
and I we decided we could dedicate our
life to another tile with this
international adoption we were gifted
into our life a foster family a birth
family and a 15 month old toddler to
love amazing way to build a family yeah
exhausting oh yeah
transformative you bet yeah but you know
I wouldn’t trade this in for anything
different and things in life that are
difficult and hard can be further
supported when you’ve got a great
partner and community around you and
something like overpopulation population
growth can be supported in a community
so for a moment please close your eyes
take a breath and consider what you
would like for your future with your
family think about freshwater lakes to
swim in schools that have green spaces
to play soccer in large mature majestic
trees to gaze up at and fresh air to
breathe now open your eyes and look at
somebody to your right make eye contact
with them feel the love because you know
what these people are a part of your
community and together our collective
actions can make a big difference on
this one planet with that we have so
never underestimate the power that your
actions can have one child at a time
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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