This war of words is frightening young people into not having children
In early Genesis, God has an important task: To create the world. He could have done so with a breath, a wink, a smile, a thought or nothing at all. Instead, he creates the world in a way that will simultaneously introduce one of the most important ideas in the Torah.
God creates the world with nine, "And God saids" – teaching us how important words are. If God creates his world with words and we are created in his image – then we, too, create our world with words.
This theme continues in the plague sequence in Exodus. The text often refers to the "word of God" and the "word of Moses" – when it could have just as easily said "God" and "Moses." The Torah does this to impress upon us that the world is moved by words – and to provide a contrast to Pharaoh, who constantly went back on his word during that sequence.
The Torah later teaches us that there is nothing theoretical or abstract about this. In Numbers 30, Moses gives the people a message from God. "If a man will take a vow to Hashem or swear an oath to establish a prohibition upon himself, he shall not desecrate his word; according to whatever comes from his mouth he will do." Whether making a commitment to act (a vow) or attesting to the veracity of something (an oath), God demands that a man must do whatever he says.
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This seriousness of words is reflected in the Hebrew language itself. The Hebrew word for word and thing are the same (davar) – reflecting the belief that words, though free and easy to use, are as real and powerful as any physical object.
Fast-forward to the contemporary era. In his 2023 State of the Union Address, President Biden said that the "climate crisis" is "an existential threat." This is as strong and as urgent a set of words as a person could use – as an "existential threat," of course, is a threat to our very existence.
The urgent boldness of this pronouncement was not unique. The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Secretary of State John Kerry, Vice Presidents Al Gore and Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and countless others have all said the same thing, using the same words.
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But none of them believed what they said.
How do we know? Each of us knows how we would respond to a genuinely "existential threat." If someone believes that he will die unless he takes medication, he will take the drug. If someone believes that his child is in danger, he will drop everything to rush to her. If someone believes that a hurricane is coming, he will board up his home and get out of town.
Everyone reacting to what he truly believes to be an existential threat will do something significant personally – and not just talk about it, or tell others what they should do.
The aforementioned leaders who speak about climate change as an "existential threat" seemingly never do anything to act accordingly. They consume enormous amounts of energy in their homes, fly private and eat meat.
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The older generation of people who proclaim that climate change is an "existential threat" might not take their words seriously.
Fast-forward to the generation of their children. Kathleen Clark, the House Democratic whip, proclaims that "there is no question that the climate crisis is the existential threat of our time." In 2022, she told NBC of her child who wakes up with nightmares about climate change. There is nothing unusual about her child.
In 2021, Lancet Planetary Health published the results of a study of 10,000 people between the ages of 16-25 from around the world. The study found that 59% of young people are "very or extremely" worried about the climate, and that 45% of young people feel so bad about climate change that it affects their "daily life and functioning."
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And it’s not only their "daily life." A widely reported 2017 study by Environmental Research Letters measured the increase in one’s carbon footprint caused by various activities. An individual can cut his carbon footprint by .25 metric tons by washing clothes in warm water, .82 tons by becoming a vegetarian, 2.4 tons by never going in a car – and 58.6 tons by not having an additional child.
A report from Morgan Stanley concludes: "Having a child is 7-times worse for the climate in CO2 emissions annually than the next 10 most discussed mitigants that individuals can do."
The logic is clear: one who takes words seriously – one who believes that climate change is an "existential threat" – would refrain from having children. And that is exactly what young people are deciding.
The Lancet study showed that 36% of young people are "hesitant to have children" because of climate change. This data is reflected in the Morgan Stanley report: "the movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline."
So – the Torah is absolutely right about words. One can use them nonseriously, but they will eventually reveal their deeply significant essence – to such an extent that one who proclaims climate to be an "existential crisis" and goes about business as usual is likely to have made himself the parent of an "extremely" anxious child who does not give him grandchildren.