A Harris campaign aide who focuses on climate change once promoted the anti-natalist view that the potential for widespread environmental destruction is a reason not to have children.
Camila Thorndike, the climate engagement director for Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign, told the Washington Post in 2022 that fears of climate change have factored into her hesitation to have children.
“It’s coming partly from a place of love for my hypothetical child,” she said.
“I want to protect them from suffering. Not that life is ever free from suffering, but. . .what of the joys and peace and goodness that make me happiest to be alive will be accessible in 20, 30, 40 years?”
Thorndike, a veteran of the left-wing environmentalist movement, joined the Harris campaign after working various senior roles at Rewiring America, a climate-focused non-profit that promotes electrification. The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Thorndike’s anti-natalist view is not uncommon among younger, more progressive environmentalists who believe the planet will be facing environmental catastrophe in the near future. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the face of youth progressivism, said in 2019 that it is a “legitimate question” to consider whether to have children given the nature of climate change.
An Ipsos survey taken in February found that 9 percent of U.S. adults aged 18-35 have put off having children because of climate change. Researchers at University College London reviewed 13 studies and concluded that climate change concerns are associated with less of a desire to have children.
The “climate anxiety” phenomenon is the subject of numerous studies and news articles describing the existential dread progressive teenagers are feeling because of apocalyptic climate predictions. It is even becoming a niche within the psychology field for “climate-aware” therapists to help people deal with the negative mental health effects of climate fears.
Harris herself previously explained the influence “climate anxiety” is having on young people who might otherwise want to have children.
“You know, I’ve heard young leaders talk with me about a term they’ve coined, ‘climate anxiety,’ which is fear of the future and the unknown of whether it makes sense for you to even think about having children, whether it makes sense for you to think about aspiring to buy a home because what will this climate be?” Harris said at Reading Area Community College last year.
With Pennsylvania up for grabs, Harris has come out against a fracking ban, a reversal from her position the last time she ran for president. Her campaign has also said that she does not support an electric-vehicle mandate, the Biden administration’s policy and a major demand of the environmental movement. But, her decision to hire Thorndike suggests she will continue being receptive to environmentalist demands for radical action on climate.